PM Modi arrives in Chennai; to meet DMK chief Karunanidhib at 12:30 pm

CHENNAI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived at 9:15 am in the city on Monday to participate in two private functions, including the platinum jubilee celebrations of the leading Tamil daily ‘Daily Thanthi’ to be held at the Centenary Hall of the University of Madras. Police have made elaborate security arrangements ahead of his visit.

#TamilNadu: PM Narendra Modi arrives in Chennai where he will attend multiple events, he will also meet former CM M Karunanidhi. pic.twitter.com/hXYJiJzUF4

— ANI (@ANI) November 6, 2017

He is expected to participate in a meeting of BJP cadre at the airport premises after being received by dignitaries, including Governor Banwarilal Purohit and Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami. Later, he will attend the Tamil daily’s function at 10.20 am and is expected to spend an hour there.

Modi will then head to RA Puram to attend the marriage of the daughter of senior IAS officer and joint secretary in the PMO, T V Somanathan, sources said, adding he would return to Delhi after completing his engagements in the city.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be meeting DMK president M Karunanidhi at his Gopalapuram residence at around 12.30 p.m.

"During his visit to Tamil Nadu today, PM Sh Narendra Modiji will visit senior-most leader from the state and former CM M Karunanidhi," BJP national general secretary P Mualidhar Rao said in a tweet.

DMK sources too confirmed the meet.

Meanwhile, in the wee hours of today, MK Stalin returned to Chennai from Dubai. 

The meeting between the prime minister and Karunanidhi is seen as a political significant move in the present scenario. 

The police have thrown a security blankets over the airport, University of Madras and Mayor Ramanathan Hall at RA Puram, besides strengthening vigil on the PM’s route.

“Under the supervision of city Police Commissioner A K Viswanathan, five Additional Commissioners, six Joint Commissioners, 43 Deputy Commissioners and 80 Assistant Commissioners are making security arrangements with a round-the-clock vigil,” a senior police officer told Express.
The officer added that traffic had been diverted around University of Madras, which has been cordoned off by placing barricades.

Arrangements have also been made for intensive frisking of the participants at the Daily Thanthi platinum jubilee event. Besides police, intelligence sleuths from the city and the State are also keeping vigil. Central intelligence agencies too have been keeping their eye on Chennai ahead of the PM’s visit.

After RaGa, PM to meet DMK supremo

Karunanidhi fell ill in October, 2016 due to a drug- induced allergy. In December last, he was admitted to the Kauvery Hospital here twice.

The veteran leader was admitted to the hospital for "optimisation of nutrition and hydration" in the first week of December and later, due to a throat and lung infection.

He had undergone tracheostomy, a procedure to optimise breathing.

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi had called on the DMK patriarch at his residence in December, 2016.

The nonagenarian leader had made his first public appearance on October 19 this year, the first since his illness, when he visited an exhibition here held to showcase the 75-year journey of DMK's mouthpiece, 'Murasoli'.

(With PTI inputs)