The Centre denied Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy political clearance for his proposed visit to the United States after engagements with US Vice President JD Vance and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani were included in the planned itinerary without being routed through the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), government sources told NDTV. The MEA, however, approved Reddy's proposed visit to the United Kingdom.

According to sources, the proposed meetings with Vance and Mamdani were among the engagements being planned by the Telangana Chief Minister's Office during the US leg of the trip. However, the programme had not been discussed with or submitted to the MEA as part of the political clearance process. The Union government subsequently denied clearance for the US visit, with officials maintaining that the decision was based on procedural and technical considerations rather than a political disagreement with the Telangana government.

MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal confirmed on Friday that political clearance had been granted for Reddy's UK visit but not for the proposed US travel. He explained that foreign visits by Chief Ministers and other dignitaries are assessed by the ministry based on the office held by the individual and the stated purpose of the visit. In this case, the proposed US programme was considered inappropriate for those requirements, leading to the denial of clearance.

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The issue emerged after the Telangana government raised concerns over the Centre's decision to block the US leg of the Chief Minister's proposed tour. Sources in the Union government maintained that the restriction was not aimed at preventing Reddy from travelling to the US itself, but was linked to the proposed programme and the manner in which certain engagements had been arranged. The Telangana Chief Minister's Office has not publicly provided details of the complete US itinerary.

The proposed visit had particular significance because of the large Telugu-origin population in the United States. The community accounts for a substantial share of Indian Americans and numbers more than 1.2 million, making the US an important destination for Telangana's political, business and diaspora outreach. A meeting with Mamdani, given his position as New York's mayor, and an engagement with Vance would also have represented high-level political interactions.

The development has sparked a political dispute in Telangana, with questions being raised over why the UK visit received clearance while the US trip did not. Officials familiar with the process, however, have maintained that there was no political vendetta involved. The episode has instead brought attention to the MEA's political-clearance mechanism, under which proposed foreign engagements by Indian dignitaries are assessed to ensure that their programmes are consistent with their official positions and the stated objectives of their visits.

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