BackBJP welcomes defecting Telugu Desam MPs
There were six TDP MPs in the Upper House and the move has dealt a blow to the southern party, which has lost two-thirds of its strengthThe four MPs have apprised Rajya Sabha Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu of their proposal
PremiumNEW DELHI : The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday evening welcomed the four defecting Telugu Desam Rajya Sabha members, CM Ramesh, YS Chowdhury, TG Venkatesh and G Mohan Rao.
There were six TDP MPs in the Upper House and the move has dealt a blow to the southern party, which has lost two-thirds of its strength. The four MPs have apprised Rajya Sabha Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu of their proposal.
“Today (Thursday) four Rajya Sabha TDP members have met and decided to join the BJP. They have submitted their proposal to Venkaiah Naidu and Thawarchand Gehlot (Leader of the House in Rajya Sabha) and to JP Nadda. We welcome them," Bhupendra Yadav, BJP national general secretary, told the media at the party’s headquarters on Thursday.
The four MPs will not be required to resign from the Rajya Sabha in accordance with the anti-defection law, which allows MPs to continue if a two-thirds majority defects to another party.
“The MPs have decided to join the BJP under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and organisational skills of Amit Shah for the progress of Andhra Pradesh. Today (Thursday) morning they meet under YS Chowdhury and they proposed to Amit Shah that they want to join the BJP. Amit Shah agreed and Thawarchand Gehlot and I went to Venkaiah Naidu with their proposal and as well as our agreement and gave it to him and he will look into it," said J.P Nadda, working president of the BJP.
Nadda added that the MPs who had joined the party “would get to work with the BJP, which believes in inclusiveness. The four of them are ground workers of Andhra Pradesh and the BJP will be strengthened if they are with us."
The previous two sessions of the Rajya Sabha witnessed repeated disruptions and adjournments with TDP MPs often storming the Well of the House and staging walkouts, demanding special status for Andhra Pradesh. YS Chowdhury, one of the MPs to join the BJP on Thursday, added that the move was in the larger interests of the state.
“The mood of the nation has very clearly shown what it wants and we have decided we should join in building this great nation. For me, I have worked as a MoS (minister of state) with the PM as the leader of the cabinet. This decision was taken mainly to join in building the nation and the state of Andhra Pradesh because we have suffered for various reasons and we want to raise issues of the AP Reorganisation Act and this is the best platform to work with," said Chowdhury.
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