4 Rajya Sabha members joining BJP 'immoral and undemocratic', says TDP

The YSR Congress, on the other hand, reiterated that the four MPs' action was "100 per cent match-fixing" between the TDP and the BJP.

TDP Chief N Chandrababu Naidu. Photo: Twitter (File)

AMARAVATI: The Telugu Desam Party on Saturday asserted that four of its Rajya Sabha members joining the BJP clearly amounted to defection and called it "immoral and undemocratic". The YSR Congress, on the other hand, reiterated that the four MPs' action was "100 per cent match-fixing" between the TDP and the BJP. TDP senior leaders met at the residence of party president N Chandrababu Naidu and discussed various developments. The party's Andhra Pradesh unit president K Kala Venkata Rao chaired the meeting, a release said. Naidu, who is on a vacation in Europe, also spoke to the leaders over phone and discussed the political developments in the state, it added. The Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council Yanamala Ramakrishnudu said the so-called merger of four MPs with the BJP was "immoral and undemocratic" and it only amounted to defection. The BJP was resorting to such devious acts as it lacked a majority in the Council of States, he said. That the four MPs were listed on the Rajya Sabha website as BJP members within hours after their defection exposed the functioning of the Central government, the release quoted the TDP leaders as having said. They alleged that the BJP was indulging in such acts to cause trouble to Naidu, who fought with the Centre for grant of Special Category Status to Andhra Pradesh. The TDP leaders once again cried foul over the take over of the government building 'Praja Vedika', adjacent to Naidu's leased residence at Undavalli area here. Though Naidu wrote to the Chief Minister, requesting that the building be allotted to him, the government took possession of the building without any reply, they lamented. Meanwhile, YSRC Parliamentary Party leader V Vijayasai Reddy alleged that three of the four TDP MPs who joined the BJP were "Chandrababus benamis". "Chandrababu himself sent them to the BJP as a protective shield to avoid getting booked in corruption cases. This is 100 per cent match-fixing. Even Chandrababu's favourable media understood his line and went soft on the BJP now, after spitting venom in the last two years," the Rajya Sabha member said in a series of tweets. He also ridiculed the TDP leaders for not even knowing where Chandrababu was vacationing. Was it such a secret not to be revealed if Chandrababu went to Switzerland or Sweden? he asked. "Europe is not a country. Everybody knows it's a continent comprising 44 countries," Reddy pointed out.