This is a well debated topic and if we had any sense left, we should have known what's going to happen. If a person is keen to do something, he would have done it long back.

I believe this should be taken in two ways:

First scenario:

I believe (this is my perception), Rajini never wanted to get into politics, but his popularity has been mis-utilized by the directors and others (including politicians) to include politically slanted dialogues.

Now that all his fans are aware that he will call it quits from the film industry soon - just that one isn't sure as to when this is going to happen - they are feeling "lost" for they do not have any other goals left. Their previous goal were to support Rajini and his movies and to project him as the next CM of TN.

Rajini should be blamed for what has happened and he's trying to bridge that mistake - albiet, he can't come out openly say that - I won't come into politics - for he's not sure how his fans are going to take this. This is a Catch22 situation for him.

Had we be in his position, we would have done the same mistake - because when we are at the helm of popularity, sometimes the popularity does get into our head. There's nothing wrong with that - for we all are humans - including Rajini.

Instead of forcing an answer on this, maybe the best answer is to leave it at that. If he wants to enter into politics in the future and he's clear about what he wants to achieve, he will do that one of the days in the future.

Second scenario:

He's keen to enter into politics, but he wants to do it at his own pace. He is absolutely mad about fans forcing him to do this. Ask yourself, would you have done anything if someone else forces you to do something? We might ... if we are not a - control freak.

If you have gone through Rajini's personal and film career to a certain extend, you would know that he's a perfect example of a - control freak. This isn't a bad thing ... for people who falls into this category would want to have a control on things that they do and want to do. They do not want to do things by the popularity demand or external forces.

Even in this scenario, we should let him have his space and decide as to what he wants.

Summary:
Would this affect his popularity? I don't think so. How did one became a fan of Rajini? Is it because you want to leverage his political popularity and thumb your chest around or want to leverage to your own personal gain? Even if such fans exist today, they are a minority in comparison to the majority of his millions of fans.

The major mistake that Rajini has done all through his career is not keeping in touch with his fans. Which, he might do it soon and he probably do it at a more frequent scale.

These are just my thoughts. If you have political ambitions, you should look somewhere else, instead of asking someone else to lead you to clean the state. And mind you, Rajini alone isn't going to cleanse the political system in India. That requires a drastic change in the constitution itself - to ensure that people with certain education alone will be allowed to stand in elections, people with clean records are allowed, and a age bar is set when people are forced to quit from politics as well. These can be done only by altering the Indian consitution laws and no political party in India is presently keen to do that.

So, what's Rajini going to achieve by entering into politics? The answer is simple - NOTHING. For he'll become like any other politician that we have. So, the only objective of fans who are asking him to enter into politics is - to leverage his polularity to make some personal gains to themselves - OR - they want to extend and build a new goal in their life.

Instead of getting agitated, if you put in your thoughts and think this clearly (not as a FAN) ... you would know that what all the fans presently doing is really pathetic.

Just my thoughts. I don't want to hurt anyone of you with my thoughts and hence I had held this back for a long time. But I guess, it has reached a time when we need to re-look into this whole thing.

Having said all that, I will remain as his fan - because he's a great entertainer and morally a great man as well :)

Anbudan,

Raj Narayanan