All eyes on today’s Rajini mandram meet

Amid suspense still lingering over his political party launch, actor Rajinikanth would be chairing the district secretary meet of Rajini Makkal Mandram at his Ragavendra Kalyana Mandapam on Thursday. Gandhiya Makkal Iyakkam leader Tamilaruvi Manian, who had claimed that the actor would launch the party in April this year, met the actor at his Poes Garden residence on Wednesday. 

With barely a year left for the 2021 Assembly polls, the actor has convened the district secretary meeting of the Rajini Makkal Mandram which is likely to be converted into a political party with a new name and flag.

“We have been invited to the district secretary meeting at 10 am on Thursday at Ragavendra Kalyana Mandapam. Though nothing was mentioned about the agenda, we assume it would be certain to do with the much-awaited political party launch,” said a district secretary of the RMM in the city. 

Tamilaruvi Manian, who met the actor, said that his meeting was a routine one. “I have been meeting the actor once in 10 days. We discussed everything, including politics,” he said. However, he refused to comment on the agenda of the actor’s Thursday’s meeting.

Sources close to the actor said that he would certainly discuss the topic of party launch in the meeting. “All the questions over the actor’s political launch would likely to be cleared in the meeting,” sources added.

The actor has convened the meeting after criticising the BJP government at the Centre for the first time over the Delhi riots. He blamed Union Home Ministry for intelligence failure to curb the riots with an iron hand during US President Donald Trump’s visit. He, however, had supported the Centre on the CAA-NRC-NPR controversy claiming that it won’t affect Indian Muslim’s and promised to fight for them if anyone was affected. On December 31, 2017, Rajinikanth announced that he would launch his political party and contest in all the 234 Assembly seats to usher in “spiritual politics” in the state. Even as his fans and supporters continued to await the launch of the party, the actor continued to act in - Petta and Darbar and now in Annaatthe.