- Telangana CM Revanth Reddy sought US and UK travel clearance from MEA.
- MEA granted clearance for the UK visit but denied permission for the US leg.
- US visit denial linked to programme not routed through MEA, not political feud.
Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy's proposed meetings with US Vice President JD Vance and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani were among the engagements planned for his US visit, but the programme was not routed through the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), sources have told NDTV.
The proposed meetings are understood to have been a key factor in the Centre denying political clearance for his travel to the United States.
The Chief Minister's Office had sought political clearance from the MEA for Revanth Reddy's travel to both the United States and the United Kingdom. While clearance was granted for his UK visit, permission for the US leg was denied.
Government sources told NDTV that the decision was taken on technical grounds and was not linked to any political disagreement between the Centre and the Telangana government.
Sources in the Union government said the proposed programme for the US visit included meetings with Vance and Mamdani. However, these engagements had not been discussed with the MEA or routed through the ministry as part of the political clearance process, sources said.
The MEA assesses proposed foreign visits by Chief Ministers and other dignitaries before granting political clearance. The programme is examined in the context of the office held by the dignitary and the stated purpose of the visit.
The issue came into focus after the Telangana government alleged that the Centre had denied clearance to the Chief Minister's US visit.
On Friday, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said the ministry had approved Revanth Reddy's UK visit but rejected the proposed US travel.
"The visits of Chief Ministers, as indeed of other dignitaries, are assessed by the Ministry of External Affairs in order to accord political clearance," Jaiswal said.
"The programme proposed in such cases should be appropriate to the office held, and the purpose of the visit. In this particular case, that was not so in respect of the United States and therefore, the clearance was denied, not given," he said.
The spokesperson also underlined that political clearance had been granted for the Chief Minister's UK visit. Revanth Reddy is currently visiting the United Kingdom.
The proposed visit would have been important given the vast population of people of Telugu origin in the US. Telugu community accounts for 14% of all Indian Americans living in the United States. At over 1.2 million it is one of the largest and fastest-growing regional Indian communities in the US.
The development has triggered a political dispute in Telangana, with questions being raised over why the US leg was denied while the UK visit received clearance. But officials familiar with the process insist that there was no political vendetta involved.
According to sources in the Telangana government, the Chief Minister's office had been working on a series of meetings in the US, including engagements with senior political figures. The Union government, however, maintained that such programmes need to be assessed and cleared through the established MEA process.
The proposed meeting with Mamdani would have been particularly significant given his profile as New York's mayor and his growing prominence in US politics. A meeting with Vice President Vance would also have been a high-level political engagement. But neither of these engagements were discussed with MEA and were communicated to the respective US officials independently by Telangana CM's office.
Government sources said the issue was not about the Chief Minister travelling to the US itself, but about whether the proposed programme was appropriate for the office of a state Chief Minister and had been properly processed through the MEA.
The Telangana Chief Minister's Office has not publicly detailed the proposed US itinerary.
The political clearance system is used by the government to assess official and political visits abroad by Indian dignitaries. Such clearances are intended to ensure that the proposed engagements are consistent with the status of the visiting dignitary and the purpose of the visit.
In this case, the Centre has made clear that the US visit did not meet those requirements, while the UK visit was cleared.
