He is an independent and was a member and State Chairman of Negeri Sembilan and Division Chief of Jempol of the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC), a component party of the BN coalition.
[2] In the 2013 Negeri Sembilan state election, the ruling BN gained victory, won the majority in the assembly and was reelected to power.
On 22 May 2013, Manickam was appointed as the Negeri Sembilan State EXCO Member in charge of Human Resources, Plantations and New Villages by Mohamad.
In the 2018 Negeri Sembilan state election, BN suffered from defeat, lost the majority in the assembly and power to Pakatan Harapan (PH).
He won the seat and was elected to the Negeri Sembilan State Legislative Assembly as the Jeram Padang MLA for the first term after defeating Kumar A/L Thuraisingham of Pakatan Rakyat (PR) and independent candidates Zailani Zakaria as well as Mazavan A Raman Nair by the majority of 2,691 votes.