Rajinikanth meeting with Governor triggers an old guessing game: will he, won’t he?

While K Balakrishnan, the CPM’s state secretary, condemned the meeting, saying it was part of an attempt to turn Raj Bhawan into a political office, BJP state president K Annamalai defended both the actor and Governor Ravi. As the war of words continues, sources say there could be more to Rajinikanth’s guarded response given how the actor is otherwise known to be soft-spoken and is rarely aggressive.

According to top sources close to the actor, Rajinikanth’s talks had little to do with his return to active politics, but was to work out the contours of a different plan: that of an unofficial ambassador for the Centre in Tamil Nadu, a state that has baffled the BJP as it expands elsewhere in the country.

“His meeting with Governor Ravi has been in the works for a long time, and was planned at least 10 days ago. They talked about politics in general. It had nothing to do with his political entry. However, he may soon be assuming the active role of an ambassador for the central government, not the BJP,” said the source.

The source pointed to how Rajinikanth has changed the images on his social media handles to showcase the Tricolour – this in a state where the BJP’s Har Ghar Tiranga, a campaign to hoist the national flag atop houses ahead of the Independence Day celebrations, has hardly gained any traction. “He could soon be urging people to hoist the national flag at their homes, he could be doing it at his home as well. So you will soon see him taking on the role of an ambassador of sorts, talking about many more national causes,” the source said.

Rumours about Rajinikanth’s entry into politics were triggered by a statement he made during the 1996 elections, when he said, “If Jayalalithaa is re-elected, even God can’t save Tamil Nadu.”

While he kept denying these reports, he aligned himself with the BJP-AIADMK alliance in the state.

In 2014, Narendra Modi, then the PM candidate, visited him in Chennai, again setting off speculation on his possible entry into politics.

In 2017, even as he began organising fan gatherings in Chennai, he denied any political ambition. He finally announced that he would start his political party and set the launch date for January 2021. But weeks ahead of the planned launch, in December 2020, he announced his withdrawal from politics citing health issues.