Superstar Rajinikanth has on Monday met Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin at the Chief Secretariat in Chennai and donated for the Chief Minister's Public Relief Fund (CMPRF) to fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. Recently, the Chief Minister has appealed to the people to donate to the public fund in a way of supporting the government's war with the pandemic. 

According to reports, Rajinikanth has met MK Stalin and donated Rs 50 lakh to the CMPRF. Following meeting the Chief Minister, Rajinikanth addressed the media during which he said he has donated Rs 50 lakh and further stated that the people must adhere to the government's guidelines and restrictions to beat the Coronavirus pandemic. After learning that Rajinikanth had donated for fighting the menace, several fans had commended him for lending his contribution. 

Movie tracker Ramesh Bala took to Twitter and said, "Superstar Rajinikanth met Hon Chief Minister MK Stalin at the Secretariat today and donated Rs 50 lakhs to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Public Relief Fund. Nice gesture." Rajinikanth's donation has come days after his younger daughter Soundarya had donated Rs 1 crore. Soundarya Rajinikanth has on May 14 donated the money to the relief fund by handing over the cheque to Chief Minister Stalin. 

Soundarya's donation was on behalf of her husband Vishagan's pharma company. Taking to Twitter, Soundarya Rajinikanth said, "My father-in-law Mr S.S. Vanangamudi, husband Vishagan, his sister, and I visited the honourable Chief Minister MK Stalin sir this morning to hand over our contribution of 1 cr for the Chief Minister's #CoronaReliefFund from our pharma company Apex laboratories, makers of Zincovit." 

Following Stalin's appeal, several people including celebrities, the general public, and businessmen had donated to the relief fund to help the government in combating the viral infection. Last Friday, actor Ajith has contributed Rs 25 lakhs to CMPRF, and reputed actor Sivakumar and his sons' actors Suriya and Karthi had met Chief Minister MK Stalin at the Chief Secretariat on May 12 and handed over a cheque worth Rs 1 crore. 

The Sivakumar family has also urged everyone to contribute to the relief fund. Several social media users had commended the celebrities for contributing to the relief fund. On Monday, actor Vikram has made an online contribution of Rs 30 lakhs to the relief fund while Sun TV group had donated Rs 10 crore. 

Besides the actors, Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit had donated Rs 1 crore and his one month's salary to the relief fund and the political parties had said that they will be donating to the relief fund from the MLAs and MPs Local Area Development funds. On Sunday, Tamil Nadu has reported 33,181 fresh COVID-19 cases, the highest single-day rise recorded by the state since the outbreak began. The state has also reported 21,317 discharges and 311 deaths. Overall, Tamil Nadu has recorded 15,98,216 COVID-19 cases so far as of Sunday of which 2,19,342 are active, 13,61,204 have been discharged, and 17,670 had succumbed to the viral infection.