Tangella Uday Srinivas, the Jana Sena Party (JSP) MP from Kakinada, arrived in Chennai on Friday night, ostensibly to attend the Joint Action Committee meeting on delimitation being hosted by Tamil Nadu CM M K Stalin. By Saturday morning, he was gone. The DMK had arranged for a warm welcome for Srinivas, whose party is a key NDA constituent and its chief, Pawan Kalyan, the Deputy Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh. Officially, the JSP said Srinivas had gone all the way to convey that the party would not be attending the meeting, but top sources said he had been asked to return because ally BJP had taken note of his presence in Chennai. Two DMK MPs, P Wilson and M M Abdulla, received Srinivas at the Chennai airport with a bouquet when he landed from Delhi around 8.30 pm. He was taken to the ITC Grand Chola Hotel, where leaders from several states had gathered for Saturday’s meeting, seen as a rare show of opposition unity against the BJP’s proposed delimitation process. Around midnight, top sources told The Indian Express, Srinivas received a call informing him that Kalyan wanted him out. “Kalyan assured him that he would personally speak to Stalin and explain the abrupt departure,” said a source. By Saturday morning, Srinivas was back at the airport. “A seat was reserved for him at the meeting,” said a source who was part of the organising committee of the JAC meeting. The DMK did not officially comment on his exit, but a senior party leader said, “We understand how these things work. Still, he came all the way here. That means something.” The JSP acknowledged it had received an invitation from the DMK to attend the meeting but maintained it had conveyed its decision to stay away. "A delegation of DMK leaders visited and respectfully invited us to the meeting. As we belong to different alliances, we, too, respectfully conveyed that JSP will not attend the meeting. Our party chief, Pawan Kalyan, has issued clear statements on our stand. We conveyed this through our representative," said P Hari Prasad, the political secretary to Kalyan. The party said Srinivas was sent to Chennai with a letter from Kalyan stating the party’s stand. "Reports that JSP was to attend the DMK meeting are misleading and false. Pawan Kalyan has already made the party’s stand clear," Prasad said. An aide of Srinivas, when contacted, said the JSP has already issued a statement. Last week, Kalyan and DMK had sparred over the alleged imposition of Hindi through the National Education Policy. It started with Kalyan stating that DMK leaders did not oppose Tamil movies being dubbed into Hindi for “financial gain”. DMK leaders criticised the remarks, saying they reflected “a narrow understanding of Tamil Nadu’s stand” and that the party wasn’t opposed to “anyone learning Hindi but the imposition of Hindi through NEP”. In response, Kalyan said he “never opposed” the Hindi language.
