Actor-turned-politician Kamal Haasan, who has long projected himself as a staunch rationalist and outspoken critic of religious customs, filed his nomination for the Rajya Sabha on Friday, 6 June 2025 — notably on an astrologically “auspicious” muhurtam day, and conspicuously after the Rahu Kalam window had ended.
The event, held at the Tamil Nadu Secretariat, was attended by a full roster of DMK brass, including Chief Minister M.K. Stalin and Deputy CM Udhayanidhi Stalin, as well as leaders from alliance parties like VCK’s Thol. Thirumavalavan, MDMK’s Vaiko, and Tamil Nadu Congress chief K. Selvaperunthagai. The nomination marks Kamal Haasan’s formal entry into the Rajya Sabha as a representative of the DMK-allied Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM), which he founded in 2018.
#WATCH | Chennai, Tamil Nadu | Makkal Needhi Maiam President and Actor Kamal Haasan files his nomination for Rajya Sabha at TN Secretariat in the presence of DMK President and TN Chief Minister MK Stalin and TN Dy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin.
(Source: TN DIPR) pic.twitter.com/DsqsNWbS6v
— ANI (@ANI) June 6, 2025
Haasan, who once infamously declared that “saffron is the colour of violence” and has regularly dismissed religious rituals as superstitious nonsense, now finds himself partaking in the very traditions he ridiculed — filing his nomination at a carefully calculated time to avoid Rahu Kalam, an inauspicious time period in traditional Tamil astrology.
MNM’s Quid Pro Quo With The DMK
The DMK, which leads the INDIA bloc in Tamil Nadu, had earlier allocated one Rajya Sabha seat to MNM as part of a political deal. In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, MNM did not field any candidates but instead campaigned for the DMK alliance. In return, the party was promised a Rajya Sabha seat. MNM had won just 2.62% of votes in the 2021 Assembly elections — an electoral performance that wouldn’t merit a Rajya Sabha nomination under normal democratic merit, but political patronage evidently writes a different story.
With 158 MLAs between the DMK and its allies in the 234-seat Assembly, Kamal Haasan’s victory in the June 19 Rajya Sabha election is practically guaranteed. The other candidates fielded by the DMK are poet Salma, legal heavyweight and incumbent MP P. Wilson, and S.R. Sivalingam.
While Kamal Haasan may have acted in the mega flop Thug Life, the real “thug life” may be Kamal Haasan’s political trajectory — from self-declared rationalist and anti-establishment voice to a backroom-deal beneficiary of the Dravidian elite, bowing to both political power and astrological custom in a matter of days.
(With inputs from The Hindu)
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