Another Tamil actor to launch party in October

Chennai, Aug 1 (UNI) Actor-politician R Sarath Kumar, who is to launch his new party in October, will announce the name of the party and flag it on August 29.

Announcing this to newspersons here last night, the actor said he would also release the party's policies and principles and venue of its first state conference, to mark the launching of the party, on that day.

''We are not launching the party to carry out agitations, but to find solutions to the problems being faced by the people through 'ahimsa' and peaceful agitations,'' he said.

Mr Sarath Kumar said his party would not be just another party in the State, but a party with a difference. ''We will function in such a manner that the youth and educated are attracted to our style of functioning and repose faith on us and join our party,'' he said.

The actor, who hailed from the mercantile Nadar community, predominant in South Tamil Nadu, was active in politics when he was DMK's Rajya Sabha member.

After he made a vain bid to secure a berth in the Cabinet, he quit the DMK and joined the All India Anna DMK (AIADMK) prior to the May 2006 Assembly elections and had widely campaigned for the party.

However, he fell out with AIADMK Supremo J Jayalalithaa and quit the party. Since then, he had been toying with the idea of launching his own party.

He made a formal announcement to this effect when he laid the foundation stone for a memorial for late Chief Minister K Kamaraj at Virudhunagar recently and declared that he would strive to bring back Kamaraj rule in the State.

Mr Sarath Kumar, said that even after launching the party, he would continue to act in films.

UNI