Image credit : Illustrative Image

It is neither of the Tamil Nadu biggies on the screen – superstars Rajinikanth or Kamal Haasan – who has thrown his hat into the electoral battle. It is actor Vishal, who was recently questioned by the IT officials recently, who in a surprise development announced his intentions to contest the RK Nagar bye elections to TN Assembly.

He will be the surprise element in the fight for the RK Nagar assembly seat that was held by late chief minister J Jayalalithaa, and will take on AIADMK’s E Madhusudhanan and rebel AIADMK faction leader TTV Dinakaran.

Vishal, who is also the president of the Tamil Film Producers Council, has been very vocal against the prevailing political situation n the state and had taken on the BJP for its view on Mersel controversy following which he was raided by IT and later by GST officials. Actor Vijay’s Mersel was opposed by the BJP for its criticism of GST. Vishal too had supported Mersel and its makers.

In October, a team of IT officials visited the Vishal Film Factory’s office to verify the alleged non-deposit of tax deducted at source in the government’s account and spent a little over two hours at the venue.

The announcement by Vishal threw up a surprise in what was seen as a battle between AIADMK rival factions with a slight advantage for the opposition DMK to wrest the seat from AIADMK fold. But Vishal’s entry introduces a suspense element, at a time when there is some fatigue in people when it comes to political parties.

In Tamil Nadu after the death of Jayalalithaa there has been a political vacuum of sorts, which was being sought to be filled by the BJP on the one hand and film personalities like Kamal Haasan and Rajinikanth testing the waters with news leaks of their imminent entry.

However, actor Vishal pipped them by his sudden announcement on Saturday to contest the December 21 bye poll to RK Nagar assembly constituency that was earlier countermanded due to excess use of money by a candidate.

Vishal, who has a following among the youth, has said that he would enter the fray as an independent candidate. It remains to be seen as to how this alters the political situation for the future.

The RK Nagar assembly seat fell vacant after the demise of the then chief minister J Jayalalithaa in December last year.