Chennai: Many eyebrows went up during Chief Minister Edappadi Palanisami's meeting with the Prime Minister on Wednesday. Accompanying the CM for his closed-door meeting at the PM's house was a Manickam.
None seems to know who Manickam is. While some said he was a lawyer related to the CM, some others speculated he might have been taken to help the CM in the English-Tamil translations during the PM meet.
“But then, the CM made it clear to the media in Delhi that he had discussed only official issues relating to Tamil Nadu, on which he had given a detailed memorandum to the PM.”
“He insisted they did not discuss politics. Why then did he choose to take someone not connected with the state matters? Why this stranger? It’s intriguing”, said a state official, requesting anonymity. Interesting even if not intriguing: state chief secretary Girija Vaidyanathan and CM’s principal secretary Shiv Das Meena were not present at the PM-CM meeting.
