KS Alagiri takes back alliance invite to Kamal Haasan, condemns his remark

After his invite to actor-politician Kamal Haasan earned him the wrath of ally DMK, Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president KS Alagiri on Sunday condemned the Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) founder-president for his unnecessary and unwanted criticism of the Dravidian party.

Alagiri also made it clear that any decision on admitting a new party into the alliance would be taken by the DMK and its allies. Alagiri's u-turn came in the wake of DMK leaders reacting strongly to his open invitation to Haasan.

Kamal Haasan had said that his party would contest all the 39 seats in Tamil Nadu and that his party was trying to serve the people with clean hands. "We are trying to keep our hands clean by not allying with any of the Dravidian parties," he said.

Alagiri, after meeting Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday, urged Haasan to consider joining the DMK-Congress alliance in Tamil Nadu. "Secular parties are there in the DMK-Congress alliance. We feel that people like Kamal Haasan should be with us. He has been identifying himself as a secular person and with a Leftist orientation. It is our wish that he join us," he had said.

On Sunday, Alagiri said that he was not aware of Haasan's statement criticising DMK when he invited him to join their alliance. "Kamal Haasan criticising the DMK will only help the BJP and will not help the ideology which he claims to profess. I condemn him for criticising DMK unnecessarily," he said.

Haasan has been making contradictory statements on contesting the Lok Sabha polls. After indicating that his party would contest as part of an alliance, Haasan has now made it clear that there won't be any alliance with Dravidian parties but appealed to Ramadoss's PMK and Vijayakanth's DMDK not join the alliance either with DMK or AIADMK.