DMK leader and Tamil Nadu minister PK Shekhar Babu meets actor-politician Kamal Haasan at his residence, fuelling speculations of Kamal Haasan being nominated to Rajya Sabha

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Tamil superstar-turned-politician Kamal Haasan may be nominated for a Rajya Sabha seat from Tamil Nadu with the support of the DMK. The Rajya Sabha elections are scheduled in July 2025. Speculations gained momentum after DMK leader and Tamil Nadu minister PK Sekhar Babu met Haasan at his residence on Wednesday.

The Makkal Nidhi Maiyam (MNM) described it as a courtesy call by the minister, while party sources said the brief discussion was only on the “broader political scenario and nothing specific”.

According to PTI sources, there was nothing new about the Rajya Sabha seat for the MNM and the DMK leadership had promised the party a seat in the upper house of Parliament in 2025 when the alliance was forged ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

Speculations about Kamal Haasan intensify

Meanwhile, DMDK top leader Premalatha Vijayakanthan reminded that her party has already been assured of a Rajya Sabha seat by its ally AIADMK.

He said that in 2025, DMDK will be allotted a Rajya Sabha seat and the candidate will be announced in due course, so there is no question of any fresh talks with AIADMK on the matter.

Six Rajya Sabha members to retire

Six Rajya Sabha members from Tamil Nadu are set to retire on July 24, 2025 and they are Anbumani Ramadoss (PMK), M Shanmugam (DMK), N Chandrasekaran (AIADMK), M Mohammed Abdullah (DMK), P Wilson (DMK) and Vaiko (MDMK).

In all, Tamil Nadu has 18 Rajya Sabha members and in July 2025, the ruling DMK is expected to send 4 MPs to the Upper House and main Opposition AIADMK has 2 MPs; and the list also includes nominees from the Dravidian major’s allies.

Kamal Haasan had founded the Makkal Nidhi Maiam (MNM) on February 21, 2018 in Madurai. He saw the party as a platform advocating transparency, governance reforms and regional cooperation. His party flag, which has six hands joined together, symbolises unity among the southern states of India (five states and one union territory).

Kamal Haasan has not had great success in elections

In the 2019 general elections, MNM candidates secured 3.72 per cent vote share. The party performed well in urban centres such as Chennai, Coimbatore and Madurai, winning over a lakh votes in some areas. However, it failed to woo voters in rural constituencies, with all its candidates losing their deposits.

The party contested the 2021 Tamil Nadu Assembly election independently but failed to secure any seat. Kamal Haasan himself lost the Coimbatore South constituency to BJP’s Vanathi Srinivasan by a margin of 1,728 votes. The MNM suffered another setback in the 2022 urban local body elections when it failed to win even one of the 140 seats.