Mr Stalin took a 10.35 a.m. flight to Bangkok, accompanied only by close friend Ramajayam Raja Shankar. The usual bureaucratic and political paraphernalia were absent when the minister arrived at the airport shortly before the plane's take-off. The security personnel at the airport were taken aback when the all-powerful minister drove in for his sudden departure. The booking for the flight, made the previous day, was kept under wraps, sources said.
Bombarded with enquiries from the media and others regarding his whereabouts, the minister's office initially insisted he was unwell and was resting, but later admitted he had gone to Bangkok on some personal work. However, political circles here are agog with speculation regarding the sudden trip. The most heard reason was that it was on private business , albeit made at an important political juncture, when his party and the government were involved in an elaborate celebration of the birth centenary of the influential Muthuramalinga Thevar on Tuesday. The minister did not go through the ritual of garlanding Thevar's statue in Chennai, nor did he accompany his father and chief minister M. Karunanidhi to Thevar's native Pasumpon in Ramanathapuram district down south.
Unconfirmed reports said the minister has been upset with his father for deciding to make stepsister and Rajya Sabha member Kanimozhi a Union minister. It is said that both the UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh have approved her induction into the Cabinet. Another report said Mr Stalin was not happy with KKSSR Ramachandran, one of his favourites, being recently divested of the plum health portfolio, reportedly under pressure from brother Azhagiri calling the shots