Actor Thilakan to contest Kerala assembly polls

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Thespian Thilakan on Monday said he would contest against Kerala legislator K B Ganesh Kumar in the assembly elections, after the car of his film director was allegedly stoned by miscreants belonging to Kumar's party.

Thilakan said that even though his field was not politics, he would contest against Kumar, if any party approaches him.

'He (Kumar) has been scheming against me for long and I will take the fight into his camp,' Thilakan said.

Thilakan's statement comes following charges that some miscreants allegedly belonging to Kumar's party, Kerala Congress (B) stoned the car of director Ali Akbar in the wee hours Monday at Kozhikode.

Speaking to the media, Akbar, who is the director of Thilakan's new film, said there was no doubt that the people behind the attack were activists of Kerala Congress (B) who had earlier said that they would not allow work on the film to be carried out.

'When I woke up today (Monday) morning I found my Maruti van's windscreen smashed,' said Akbar.

'There are just two characters in the film titled Achen and Thilakan plays the central role. We are not going to be cowed down by such threats. The police has already registered a case,' Akbar said.

This incident has taken place a day after the Association of Malayalam Movie Artistes (AMMA) gave the green signal for the ouster of Thilakan from their fraternity. Kumar is an office bearer of the AMMA.

Thilakan was ousted from AMMA in April on the grounds of violating discipline and since then he has not been getting any film offers.

But Akbar had announced that he will cast Thilakan in his new film slated to begin shortly.

Reacting to the attack, Kumar's father and veteran Kerala politician R Balakrishnan Pillai denied that his party workers were behind the attack.

'I don't think my party men will do such an act. In fact I wish to see Thilakan act in more number of films,' said Pillai.

Kumar is the lone legislator of his party and sits in the Opposition. This is his second outing in the assembly and both times he won from the Pathanapuram constituency in Kollam district. He was the transport minister in the A.K. Antony cabinet from 2001-03.