New Delhi: Four of the six Telugu Desam Party members of Rajya Sabha Thursday joined the BJP and sought a merger of the TDP Legislature Party with the saffron party.
Y S Chowdary, C M Ramesh, Garikapati Mohan Rao and T G Venkatesh met Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu and handed him a letter of a resolution passed by the legislature party urging its merger.
BJP's working president J P Nadda and leader of the BJP in Rajya Sabha Thawarchand Gehlot also met Naidu and submitted a proposal from BJP president Amit Shah saying the party has no objection to the merger of the TDP Legislature party with the BJP.
Three of the four MPs later met Nadda and Gehlot at the party headquarters and joined the BJP.
"I assure them that the BJP believes in politics of positivity and inclusiveness," Nadda told a press conference in the presence of TDP MPs.
Their decision to back the BJP will give a boost to the saffron party in the upper house as the ruling National Democratic Alliance does not have a majority there yet.
There are serious corruption charges against the two of the MPs. In November last year, officials of the Enforcement Directorate and Income Tax swooped down on Chowdary's two homes in Delhi and in Hyderabad and registered a case claiming a bank fraud in excess of Rs 300 crore.
Another TDP MP, C M Ramesh's name cropped up in the CBI tug-of-war between former Director Alok Verma and then Special Director in the agency Rakesh Asthana.
Ramesh had allegedly arranged a deal with the former CBI director to get an accused relief in a case being investigated by then special director Asthana by paying a hefty bribe.
Taking stock of the situation, Telugu Desam Party President N Chandrababu Naidu who is vacationing in Europe said such crises were not new to the party.