Veteran actor Rajinikanth, who was to announce the name of his political party on 31 December, on Tuesday said he would not join politics after all due to his health.
The actor sought his fans' forgiveness, stating he would serve the people without entering electoral politics. Rajinikanth was recently hospitalized after experiencing severe blood pressure fluctuations.
The superstar took to Twitter on Tuesday morning to share a detailed statement in Tamil.
— Rajinikanth (@rajinikanth) December 29, 2020
As per a report in The News Minute, Rajinikanth said he was unable to venture out and campaign during the pandemic.
“It is impossible to secure an uprising in politics and a big victory by solely depending on news media and social media for the campaign after I start the political party. Those who have experience in politics will not deny this fact. I will have to go to the people for campaigning and meet thousands and lakhs of people. Even in a group of 120 people, there was a coronavirus infection and I had to stay under doctors’ watch for three days. Now, this coronavirus has changed its form and is spreading as a variant strain (sic),” the report read.
Rajinikanth was hospitalized in Hyderabad last week a day after a few crew members on the set of his upcoming Tamil film Annaatthe tested positive for the coronavirus. The shoot was immediately halted and the actor was set to return to Chennai the next day.
Upon being discharged from the hospital on Sunday, Rajinikanth was advised a week of bed rest.
Rajinikanth had been threatening to enter politics for almost a quarter-century. In December 2017, a year after chief minister J Jayalalithaa's death, he, at last, began moving in that direction by announcing his decision to set up his own party.
He also launched a website, Rajinimandram.org, to register members from his fan clubs. Soon after the launch of the site, speculation was rife that Rajinimandram could be the name of Rajinikanth’s party, but that is yet to be confirmed almost three years later.
The actor had also met his elder brother Sathyanarayana Rao at the latter’s residence in Bengaluru earlier this month to seek his blessings before taking the plunge into politics.
In a brief statement, the superstar had said that his party would be non-corrupt, honest and transparent. He also said that they would sweep the next assembly elections in Tamil Nadu.