Four Telugu Desam Party Rajya Sabha MPs Join BJP

New Delhi: In a major setback to Telugu Desam Party (TDP), four of its six Rajya Sabha members on Thursday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party. TDP parliamemterians Y.S. Chowdary, C.M. Ramesh, T.G. Venkatesh and G. Mohan Rao also met Vice President and Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaiah Naidu and submitted their resignation from the TDP.

Addressing a press conference, BJP Rajya Sabha MP Bhupender Yadav said: “Four TDP Rajya Sabha members held a meeting earlier in the day where they decided to merge with the BJP.” After the four MPs joined the BJP, party working president J.P. Nadda said the MPs were thinking for long to follow the dynamic leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and for the development of Andhra Pradesh. He said all the four MPs are grassroots leaders and they would help in strengthening the BJP in the state. In their letter to the Rajya Sabha chairman, the TDP MPs wrote that they were “inspired and encouraged by the impeccable leadership of Narendra Modi” and were merging with the BJP.

In the resolution submitted to the Vice President, they said they decided to merge TDP parliamentary party in Rajya Sabha with BJP under paragraph 4 of the Tenth Schedule to the Constitution. Yadav said the four MPs reportedly also met BJP chief Amit Shah during the day with their letter. With the four TDP MPs merging with the BJP, the tally of the ruling party will go up from 71 to 75 in the Rajya Sabha. After joining te BJP here, Chowdary said, “The mood of the nation was clear in recent elections.” The development has plunged TDP into a crisis at a time when party president and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu is on a foreign trip along with his family members. Chowdary, a former Central minister and Ramesh are considered close to Chandrababu Naidu. (IANS)

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