Well-known producer Raju Mahalingam, who recently resigned as the creative director of Lyca Productions to join Rajinikanth's political movement, has been appointed as the state secretary of Rajinikanth's Makkal Mandram. 

It may be recalled that Raju Mahalingam, as part of Lyca Productions, was the producer of Rajinikanth's 2.0, a multi-starrer that is being made at a cost of over Rs450 crore. The film has Amy Jackson and Akshay Kumar in the lead along with Rajinikanth and is being directed by one of the top directors of the industry, Shankar.

Sources close to Rajinikanth say that the actor has, over the last couple of days, been meeting fans and appointing the officebearers of different districts.

Officebearers have been asked to increase the membership of the Mandram and in particular, have been asked to encourage more women to join the organisation.

This morning, veteran politician Tamizharuvi Manian, who was one of the earliest to announce that Rajinikanth would come to politics, called on the superstar and held discussions with him.

Sources present on the occasion say that Rajinikanth was looking to complete appointing the officebearers to different districts of his Mandram before the end of this month.

Meanwhile, the actor, who held discussions with his fans from the district of Tuticorin yesterday, finalised the list of officebearers in the district. 

An official statement put out by the Mandram listed all the names the actor had chosen to different posts in the district. 

Interestingly, the official statement had Raju Mahalingam's name as the state secretary. 

Although Raju Mahalingam had announced that he was joining Rajinikanth's party almost immediately after Rajini made his decision to enter politics public, he had not been given any position so far. 

Now, he has been given the all important position of state secretary of the party.