Jagan Invited to South India All-Party Meeting
YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) president and former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy was invited to the South India all-party meeting scheduled for March 22 in Chennai. Tamil Nadu Minister E. V. Velu and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) Rajya Sabha MP Wilson met Jagan Mohan Reddy at his residence in Tadepalli on Wednesday to extend the invitation.
The DMK leaders handed over a letter from Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. K. Stalin to Jagan Mohan Reddy. Stalin has already invited several Chief Ministers, party heads, and opposition leaders from various states to discuss the issue of Lok Sabha constituency delimitation. As part of this outreach, DMK representatives met Jagan Mohan Reddy to urge his participation in the meeting.
Stalin has extended invitations to the Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Kerala, Karnataka, West Bengal, and Punjab, as well as leaders of major political parties, to participate in the discussion on constituency reorganization. The question of whether Jagan Mohan Reddy will attend the meeting has generated considerable political speculation.
The YSR Congress Party, under Jagan Mohan Reddy's leadership, has so far maintained a neutral stance, refraining from aligning with either the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) or the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA). While Jagan Mohan Reddy maintained close ties with the central government and BJP leadership during his tenure as Chief Minister, his party has kept an equal distance from both national alliances.
In contrast, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. K. Stalin is aligned with the INDIA bloc. Despite political differences, Jagan Mohan Reddy and Stalin share a personal friendship, as evidenced by Stalin’s presence at Jagan Mohan Reddy’s swearing-in ceremony in 2019. Given Stalin’s confrontational stance against the central government, speculation is mounting over whether Jagan Mohan Reddy will align with him on this issue. The matter has become a topic of intense discussion in political circles.