Will not take the political plunge, announces Rajinikanth

Superstar Rajinikanth on Tuesday announced that he will not be entering politics owing to his health condition.

"I will continue to serve people in whatever ways I can without entering electoral politics," Rajinikanth said in a statement.

In the statement, Rajinikanth expressed regret while announcing the decision and apologised to his fans for disappointing them.

The announcement comes two days after he was discharged from a Hyderabad hospital on Sunday. The actor was admitted to the hospital on December 25 with severe hypertension and exhaustion and he was placed under close medical supervision and treated by a team of doctors.

The 70-year-old superstar  had also undergone a kidney transplant in 2016 in the United States

The actor had early this month announced he would launch his political party in January ahead of the 2021 Tamil Nadu Assembly elections.

Reacting to the announcement, actor-turned-politician Kamal Haasan said he was disappointed with Rajinikanth’s decision.

“I will meet Rajinikanth again after my election campaign. Like his fans, I too have been disappointed but his health is important to me,” he said.

The actor’s major brush with politics was in 1996 when he spoke out against the then AIADMK government led by late J Jayalalithaa with the DMK-TMC combine trumping the ruling party in the assembly elections.