CHENNAI: In death, Kalam turns a politician. A team of the late President of India APJ Abdul Kalam 's associates are working behind the scenes to launch a political party in his name and garner the support of his "ardent followers and admirers".V Ponraj, former scientific adviser to Kalam, and now the convenor of the Abdul Kalam Mission India movement, is likely to head this political party and an announcement to this effect will be made at a two-day public meeting in Virudhunagar starting Friday."A number of students and youths from across the state who have been meeting me during various social work projects have asked me to consider getting into politics. They are looking for good leaders and they want me to lead from the front," Ponraj told ET. "They have organised this public meeting voluntarily and I wish to confirm whether or not the political party will be launched only while addressing this public meeting," Ponraj added.Ponraj said he has been working with many expert teams including the Manifesto For Change team, Sustainable Development team and People from the Vision 2020 Movement apart from running the Abdul Kalam Mission India Movement to implement sustainable development projects."We are already working on various projects including developing sustainable projects for de-centralising power at the village levels, safe drinking water, drainage networks and solid-liquid resource management plan.Apart from this, we are training various groups of people and holding motivational sessions across hundreds of institutions to create good leaders among students," Ponraj said.He said the recent floods in Chennai and at least four other districts had triggered a serious discussion among the youth volunteers of various movement about starting a political party."You could see a sense of disillusionment among them with the present political system and they are asking me how much longer we can wait," he said.Many members of the various forums that connects them with Ponraj are joining hands to work on the launch of political party which will be "modelled on Kalam's vision".R Senthuran, one of Ponraj's associates and president of United Vision 2020 Movement said, "When there is so much negativity, the mere mention of Kalam's name lends positive vibes among youth. Just meeting Kalam once has changed my life. I gave up my job as a lecturer and began travelling across the state motivating students. Ponraj has worked closely with Kalam and has been close to him for almost 20 years. There can't be anyone better to lead this movement and realise Kalam's dream for a better nation."The plan of these associates along with members in their mission groups is to galvanise students and spread their presence gradually.R Monica, a Madurai-based second year college student and a volunteer in United Vision 2020 told over phone that many students have already started campaigning for the political party. "I spoke to many of my classmates and those in my NSS group. They are excited and all of them say they will definitely support the party modelled on Kalam's vision."But experts may not fully agree. "It may be a welcome move for younger and educated people to get into the political space, but they are likely to be silent on complex social issues. These ambitious parties will talk about corruption and governance issues, but will never have it in them to speak about socially relevant issues like caste discrimination and communal problems," said politi cal analyst Perumal Mani."When an activist called `Traffic' Ramasa my took on Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa when she contested the RK Nagar bypoll in Chennai, despite all the free publicity he got across the media, he managed to get just about 4,000 votes. I will be surprised if this Kalam party can get even 2,000 votes per constituency," Mani added.