Chennai: Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) founder and actor Kamal Haasan on Thursday echoed superstar Rajinikanth's statement that there was a political leadership 'vacuum' in Tamil Nadu, saying there were no 'good' leaders unlike in the past.

"There is nobody (available) for a good leadership. None can deny there were good leaders (in the past). What we are saying is there is no such persons now," Haasan told reporters at the airport here.

He was responding to Rajinikanth's statement last week that a "vacuum" for a powerful leadership in the state still existed, reiterating his remarks made last year in the wake of the death of chief minister J Jayalalithaa in 2016 and the illness of then DMK President M Karunanidhi, who died in August 2018.

Both the AIADMK and DMK have hit out at Rajinkanth for the statement. While Chief Minister K Palaniswami had said Rajinikanth was just an actor and not a political leader, DMK leader Durai

Murugan had insisted his party chief MK Stalin has already filled that vacuum.

Rajinikanth has earlier announced he would float a party and contest the next assembly elections due in 2021.

Responding to Palaniswami's jibe at him that his political innings will end in a fiasco, Haasan said the chief minister was expressing his desire. "They are expressing their desires," he said, adding it may not necessarily become true.