With actor Rajinikanth reportedly keen on recruiting one crore “volunteers” before he formally launches a political party ahead of the next Assembly elections, a committee set up by him will soon embark on a tour of all 32 districts in Tamil Nadu and appoint office bearers for his Rajini Mandrams in the coming week.
“A small committee will tour the State and appoint office-bearers, who will then carry out the membership drive as outlined by Mr. Rajinikanth in his speech on December 31 last year [when he made clear his intention to plunge into politics],” said a source close to the actor.
Vellore district is likely to be the first stop in this pan-Tamil Nadu effort to streamline the fan clubs and create a party structure with various organs, such as the youth wing, advocates’ wing, women’s wing and so on.
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In each district, three or four officer-bearers will be appointed to the Rajini Mandrams.
The effort is likely to complement the online membership drive, which, the party sources claim, has reached around one million since the actor launched an app and a website on January 1.
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Database of cadres
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“We will use forms for offline membership drive, which will then be keyed into the online application to create a consolidated database of cadres. This would help us know how many party workers there are in each district,” said the source. Mr. Rajinikanth’s close aides say that the appointment of district office-bearers would be “temporary” and would not mean that they would automatically take over plum party posts when the party is launched in due course.
“These appointments are not set in stone. The future will depend on how well they are performing in their roles. Thalaivar (Rajinikanth) has set five lakh members as a benchmark for each district. Those who don’t do well will have to make way for others,” said the aide. The actor had earlier asked his fans to reach out to the public and bring as many people into the fold of the Rajini fan clubs as possible.