Panneerselvam flies to Bengaluru to seek Amma’s blessing, denied

BENGALURU: Former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and General Secretary AIADMK J. Jayalalithaa on Tuesday reportedly refused to meet her successor and TN

Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam, who had come to meet her in the Central Prison at Parapanna Agrhara, where she is lodged after being convicted and sentenced in a disproportionate assets case by a special court on September 27.

“The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister had come to meet Ms Jayalalithaa in the prison around 11am, but she refused to meet him. She didn’t come out of her cell. Mr Panneerselvam after waiting for a while left the prison campus,” said an official source.

“She is keeping to herself and did not come out of her cell even to meet Mr Panneerselvam. She may be upset because of the postponement of her bail plea and worried about the political developments in Tamil Nadu after her conviction,” added the officer.

However some reports suggested that Panneerselvam was in fact told to rush back to Chennai and bring some documents to help in the bail application coming up on Wednesday.

On Monday evening, Mr Panneerselvam had flown in to the city from Chennai soon after being sworn in as the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister to seek ‘Amma’s’ blessings, but he was late and not allowed to meet her because it was well past 6 pm, after which convicts are not allowed to have ‘interview’ with their family or friends. He then postponed his plan to Tuesday.

“He waited in a hotel till afternoon to get Jaya’s permission to meet her, but returned to Tamil Nadu in the afternoon,” sources in the prison said.