NEW DELHI: Five MPs of Chandrababu Naidu's Telugu Desam Party on Friday evening met Vice President Venkaiah Naidu, who is also the chairman of the Rajya Sabha, to challenge four of their colleagues switching over to the BJP.
The TDP delegation - two Rajya Sabha and three Lok Sabha lawmakers - have asked for the initiation of disqualification proceedings under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution against the TDP lawmakers who merged with the BJP on Thursday.
Four of TDP's six Rajya Sabha lawmakers - YS Chowdary, CM Ramesh, Garikapoati Mohan Rao, TG Venkatesh - met Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday and gave him a letter that said they have "decided to merge" the TDP's Legislature Party with the BJP with immediate effect "under Paragraph 4 of the Tenth Schedule to the Constitution of India".
"We would like to highlight that the four TDP MPs of Rajya Sabha have neither the authority nor are they empowered to merge the TDP Legislature Party in the Rajya Sabha with the BJP... The TDP will move an appropriate application before the Chairman of Rajya Sabha for their disqualification," the delegation wrote and submitted to Venkaiah Naidu.
The switchover was led by YS Chowdary, who was named TDP leader in Rajya Sabha just a few days ago. Considered close to Chandrababu Naidu, was a minister of state in the first Narendra Modi-led NDA government till March last year when TDP pulled out of the coalition.