india

Updated: Jan 01, 2019 20:49 IST

Actor Prakash Raj announced on Twitter on Tuesday he will contest the Lok Sabha election to be held later this year as an Independent candidate, ending speculations about his imminent move to politics.

It is unclear where Raj will contest from, being fluent in the languages of and popular in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

“HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE..a new beginning .. more responsibility.. with UR support I will be contesting in the coming parliament elections as an INDEPENDENT CANDIDATE. Details of the constituency soon. Ab ki baar Janatha ki SARKAR #citizensvoice #justasking in parliament too..” Raj posted on Twitter.

Raj had begun a campaign in Karnataka called #JustAsking and said previously that his increasing political activity was sparked by the murder of a close friend and journalist Gauri Lankesh, who was gunned down in front of her Bengaluru house on September 5, 2017.

Also read: Journalist Gauri Lankesh, known critic of Hindu right-wing extremism, murdered

Since then, Raj has been a vocal critic of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Addressing a press conference in Bengaluru last year, Raj had claimed that there he was being offered a fewer number of films as a result of his political activism.

Also read: I am not anti-Hindu, I am anti-Modi, says actor Prakash Raj

Notably, Raj was present during a meeting of Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekhar Rao, former prime minister HD Deve Gowda and HD Kumaraswamy, who would eventually become Karnataka chief minister, in the run-up to the assembly elections in the state.

Repeated attempts to reach Raj went unanswered.

The Bengaluru resident is known for his versatile acting and has appeared in films in all south Indian languages and also in Hindi and other languages. He received the National Award for Best Acting for his role in Kanchivaram.