Narendra Modi – Rajnikanth meeting at Chennai

Chennai, 13 April 2014

Ahead of the fifth phase of voting, BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate and star campaigner Narendra Modi is likely to visit superstar Rajnikanth at his Chennai residence on Sunday for a “personal meeting.”

“Narendra Modi is visiting cine super star Rajinikanth at his residence in Chennai tomorrow evening,” BJP’s General Secretary-in-charge of Tamil Nadu, P Muralidhar Rao, said in a post on social networking site ‘Twitter’.

Modi would be in Chennai to address a public meeting but before that he would meet the super star at around 5 PM for a “personal meeting”. Modi is expected to meet the actor on arrival from Hubli either in the airport lounge or at Rajnikanth’s residence at Poes Garden.

Asked whether the meeting could have any implication for Lok Sabha elections, the source said “it is a personal meeting” but hastened to add that “Narendra Modi and elections cannot be separated.”

BJP leaders had in the past hoped that the party gets some support from the cine star who has a wide appeal not just in Tamil Nadu but in other states as well.

The photo-op may seem an endorsement to legions of Rajinikanth fans–the intersection between cinema and politics in the state goes a long way back.

Before the 2004 election, Rajnikanth had issued a statement in support of AIADMK and BJP, which was probably the only occasion when the normally reticent and politically non-committal actor spoke up.

A couple of years ago, at an annual function organized by Tughlak magazine editor Cho Ramaswamy, Modi and Rajnikanth had exchanged pleasantries, BJP sources recalled adding, “That was of course a time when Modi was nowhere near being named as our PM candidate.” And then, just prior to the Trichy rally addressed by Modi last September, state BJP chief Pon Radhakrishnan had let it be known at a press conference that he had sent feelers to Rajnikanth to attend the event. The actor did not reciprocate though.

For BJP, which has reached out to various sections in the south, a Rajnikanth smile of approval now may provide an incremental advantage to its alliance which has, for the first time, several regional outfits including DMDK, PMK, MDMK, IJK and KNDK on board.