On March 21, a day before the JAC meeting on delimitation, the Chennai airport was flooded with a flurry of high profile visitors. The DMK MPs and ministers were at the airport welcoming the political leaders from various states. And among them was Andhra Pradesh Deputy CM Pawan Kalyan party's MP Tangella Uday Srinivas.
Andhra Pradesh, which also stands to lose its Lok Sabha seats due to the delimitation exercise, did not have even a single representation at the JAC meeting on March 22. While it was said that former Andhra Pradesh chief minister Jagan Reddy's YSRCP will send it representatives, there was no formal message from Jagan or his party colleagues. When asked, Kanimozhi, DMK MP, who moderated the meeting said that YSRCP had expressed its concerns for not attending the meeting.
Some people feel that when I talk about Hinduism, I am belittling other religions, but I am not that kind of person.
— JanaSena Shatagni (@JSPShatagniTeam) March 22, 2025
I wish that there should be no disparity in religions and castes.
- Hon'ble Dy. CM Of Andhra Pradesh Sri @PawanKalyan Garu pic.twitter.com/IzXydNK7Q2
However, the highlight was the return of Srinivas just hours after he reached the hotel. Srinivas was accorded a warm welcome at the airport by DMK Rajya Sabha MP P Wilson and his colleague.
Srinivas reached the ITC hotel late in the evening and was all set to participate to express Jana Sena's voice against the proposed delimitation exercise. But a sudden phone call from his party chief and Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan made him leave the hotel and take the next flight back. The organising committee had made arrangements for him to attend the meeting and a seat was reserved for him.
According to highly placed sources, Pawan Kalyan had sent Srinivas to voice his views, with a letter to Tami Nadu Chief minister MK Stalin, against delimitation and Andhra standing to lose its Lok Sabha seats. Pawan had even expressed his support to the JAC. However sources say that, as an important constituent of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by the BJP, Pawan Kalyan and his JSP were under pressure not to participate in the meeting. And so Pawan had called him back, sources told THE WEEK. Sources also say that Pawan had assured Srinivas that he would personally speak to Stalin.
Incidentally, the BJP and its leaders who stand vindicated due to Stalin's idea of bringing together the south against the saffron party, took to protest in front of the hotel and its TN chief K Annamalai dubbed it as "delimitation drama of Stalin" just minutes before the meeting began. The BJP has been maintaining that the number of Lok Sabha seats will not go down as the delimitation exercise will be carried out on pro-rata basis.
