Chennai: Actor Rajinikanth announced he won’t be joining politics on Tuesday, three days after he was discharged from Apollo hospital following severe fluctuations in his blood pressure.
In a three page statement uploaded on Twitter, Rajinikanth said, “I see this health complication as a warning given to me by god.”
His inability to campaign during a pandemic is behind the decision, Rajinikanth said in the statement.
“I will have to campaign and meet people for election. But I had to stay under the doctors’ watch for three days after being around just a group of 120 people (the crew of his upcoming film Annatthe) following a coronavirus infection. This virus has now changed its form and a mutant is spreading,” Rajinikanth said in the statement.
Rajinikanth’s U-turn is bound to “disappoint” members of the Rajini Makkal Mandram (RMM) that was seen as the precursor to his political party.
“Forgive me,” he wrote, while hailing the discipline of RMM cadre over the past three years and added that their service wouldn’t go waste.
Rajinikanth also thanked his colleagues Arjuna Moorthy and Tamizharuvi Manian in the letter.
The actor said he had never shied from speaking the truth and urged his fans “who desire truth and honesty to kindly accept” his decision.