CK Kumaravel, founder and CEO of Naturals Salons, quit actor-turned-politician Kamal Haasan’s Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) citing internal politics. However, MNM released a statement saying that the businessman had violated the party principles by declaring himself as a candidate for the upcoming elections, and this lead them to accept his resignation.
According to a report byThe News Minute, Kumaravel cited internal politics as the primary reason behind his resignation. “The reason for quitting is internal politics,” he said while admitting that Dr Mahendran’s arrival into the party had increased the problems. “With Dr Mahendran coming into the picture, the internal party politics increased multifold. When someone is getting announced as joining the party as Vice President 30 minutes before a programme, it becomes very difficult to manage the front end.”
Mahendran, a doctor and vanilla farmer, was appointed as the Vice President of the party in November last year. In a statement to the press on November 28, the party had said that the decision was reached through a resolution passed by their Governing Body and Executive Committee on October 8, 2018.
While announcing his resignation today, Kumaravel, however, lauded the party chief Kamal Haasan’s efforts saying, “Kamal has a good vision, he puts in a lot of effort. But the team around him is detrimental to him, the party and to his vision.” He also maintained that the actor never forced him to stay.
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He spoke about what he thought were the set-backs in the party’s armour. “A start-up party like ours should be a lot more agile. But we are the last to announce candidates (for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls). We should have made the announcement a month ago and started groundwork by now. This was the advantage that (former AIADMK chief) J Jayalalithaa had over (former DMK chief) M Karunanidhi. She would announce her candidates well in advance. The bigger parties have announced their lists. This shows where the priorities lie. Things are going from bad to worse. Someone needs to bell the cat. So I said okay, let me sacrifice myself.”
Though he had brought up these concerns from time to time, they were never acknowledged, he said. “I expressed my concerns, my viewpoints and my suggestions from time to time in the WhatsApp group that we have. But it was not even acknowledged. Then I thought to myself that our party is no exception (to internal politics).”
In its defence, Makkal Needhi Maiam released a statement earlier today, and said that Kumaravel violated party principles by declaring himself as the party’s candidate from Cuddalore constituency. The party had not yet decided on the candidate, and the selection could happen only after an interview with a panel.
“When the party leadership questioned him about this, his answers were not satisfactory,” read the statement.
“Makkal Needhi Maiam’s leadership accepts his resignation on the grounds that Mr Kumaravel’s act was not in keeping with the tenets of the democratic selection process of its candidates.”
#MNM reaction on @ckknaturals exit from the party pic.twitter.com/9hIxNcsN1P
— Shabbir Ahmed (@Ahmedshabbir20) March 18, 2019
Image Courtesy: DTNext