Kamal Haasan the legendary actor turned politician lost his first elections by a small margin of 1500 votes to the BJP candidate Vanathi Srinivasan at the Coimbatore South constituency. He however gave a tough fight and was leading both his rivals from the established national parties almost till the end of the ballot counting, before the trend changed in the late evening.

Kamal in his inimitable style took to Twitter and wrote in Tamil "We accept the people's mandate and thank those who voted for us, our and the MNM functionaries who worked tirelessly."

Kamal added "Our motto of changing Tamil Nadu for the better is not a slogan for the elections but the dream of the Makkal Needhi Maiam. We will stand our ground to protect our land, our language, and our people".

Social media users are expressing their admiration to the unparalleled film actor for boldly facing the elections. The majority are even happy that Kamal lost hoping that he would then make more of his unique films which only he can and take Tamil cinema to the next level as he always does.

'சீரமைப்போம் தமிழகத்தை' என்பது ஒரு தேர்தலுக்கான கோஷம் அல்ல. அது மக்கள் நீதி மய்யத்தின் கனவு. மண், மொழி, மக்கள் காக்க தொடர்ந்து களத்தில் நிற்போம். (2/2)

— Kamal Haasan (@ikamalhaasan) May 2, 2021