TDP approaches Venkaiah

A day after four TDP Rajya Sabha MPs "merged" the party with BJP, five other TDP MPs on Friday approached the Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu saying their claim was not legally sustainable, even as the latter recognised them as lawmakers of the saffron party.

The Rajya Sabha website showed that four MPs — Y S Chowdary and three MPs C M Ramesh, Garikapati Mohan Rao and T G Venkatesh — as members of BJP.

However, three TDP MPs from Lok Sabha and two from Rajya Sabha approached Naidu and submitted a memorandum, asking him not to recognise the four MPs as part of BJP Parliamentary party.

"The four members have further claimed to have conducted a meeting of the TDP Legislature Party in Rajya Sabha to pass a resolution to merge with BJP... We would also like to highlight that the four TDP MPs of the Rajya Sabha have neither the authority nor are they empowered to merge the TDP Legislature Party in the Rajya Sabha with the BJP," the memorandum said.

It was signed by TDP Parliamentary party leader Jayadev Galla, Lok Sabha floor leader K Rammohan Naidu, Lok Sabha MP K Srinivas, TDP Rajya Sabha Floor Leader K Ravindra Kumar and TDP Deputy Leader Thota Seeta Ramalakshmi. Kumar and Ramalakshmi were assigned as leader and deputy leader of TDP on Wednesday.