india

Updated: Jun 21, 2019 19:20 IST

Five MPs from the Telegu Desam Party met Vice President Venkaiah Naidu on Friday to challenge the merger of TDP’s legislative party and demanded that the four Rajya Sabha members who crossed over to the BJP yesterday should be disqualified, according to news agency ANI.

“Having gone through the law, what we now understand is, the merger of a political party has to take place at an organizational level. It cannot take place at the level of the legislature party. Since the TDP and BJP have not merged at the organizational level, this is not a legal merger,” Jaydev Galla, TDP’s parliamentary party leader said after he met the Vice President.

“This is what we explained to the Vice President. He said that he will review the legalities and do whatever is necessary according to the law. We have to wait and watch. We have given the letter. We will also give a letter to the Parliamentary Affairs Minister,” the TDP leader added.

On Thursday, four lawmakers of the Telegu Desam Party in the Rajya Sabha quit and joined the BJP, plunging the TDP into a political crisis. The party which had six lawmakers in the Upper House was left with only two MPs. The lawmakers had also passed a resolution to merge the TDP’s legislature party with the BJP.

The four MPs --YS Chowdary alias Sujana Chowdary, TG Venkatesh, CM Ramesh and Garikapati Mohan Rao – also met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah before quitting the TDP.

The defection by the TDP lawmakers comes at a time when party chief Chandrababu Naidu is on a family vacation in Europe. He is due to return to the country on June 26.