Tamil Nadu Polls: Kamal Haasan party's prominent face Arunachalam joins BJP

Chennai, Dec 25: Actor politician Kamal Haasan led Makkal Needhi Maiam''s general secretary A Arunachalam, one of the founding members of the party, on Friday joined the BJP in the presence of Union Minister Prakash Javadekar.

Arunachalam, who has been associated with the party since it was founded in 2018, said he chose to quit MNM as party chief Haasan declined to take a stand in support of the Centre''s new farm laws, which is beneficial to the farmers.

As a person hailing from a farming family, he said he understood the benefits of these laws. Arunachalam, one of the founding members of the MNM, was seen as an active office-bearer and had taken part in most key events of the outfit.

Despite claiming to be a ''centrist'' party, the MNM chief did not agree to support the laws, though he told Haasan that these laws need not be seen through the prism of the BJP, but just as a government initiative aimed at helping farmers, Arunachalam said.