VIJAYAWADA: Even as the process of merger of the Telugu Desam Rajya Sabha Legislature Party with the BJP was completed with the website of the Upper House showing rise in the strength of the saffron party, the TDP lodged a complaint to Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu on Friday urging him to disqualify the four turncoat MPs.
A day after the four MPs, including YS Chowdary, CM Ramesh, TG Venkatesh and Garikapati Mohan Rao, submitted a resolution to the Rajya Sabha Chairman to merge the TD Legislature Party with the BJP with immediate effect under Paragraph 4 of the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution of India and treat them as members of the BJP, the Rajya Sabha website revised the strength of the saffron party.
Taking serious note of the merger of the TD Legislature Party with the BJP, Telugu Desam MPs Galla Jayadev, K Rammohan Naidu and Kesineni Nani (Lok Sabha) and Rajya Sabha members Kanakamedala Ravindra Kumar and Thota Seetharama Lakshmi called on Venkaiah Naidu and informed him that there was no merger of the TDP with the BJP.
In the letter submitted to the Rajya Sabha Chairman, the TDP mentioned that as per the Tenth Schedule, any merger of political parties take place only at the organisation level.
“The four TDP Rajya Sabha members have neither the authority nor they are empowered to merge the Legislature Party with the BJP. They will have to be disqualified for joining the BJP under Paragraph 2 of the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution. Even by their letter it is obvious that they are not competent to claim merger of the organisational wing of the TDP with that of BJP.
"Any decision regarding the merger of the organisational wing of the TDP with any other political party shall only be considered by the TDP’s organisational wing in accordance with the Constitution of India. Consequently, the four MPs are neither competent nor do they have the right to seek merger of the TD Legislature Party with the BJP,” the TDP MPs said.
Speaking to newsmen later, the TDP MPs said that they urged the Rajya Sabha Chairman to disqualify the four MPs. “We have informed that there is only a possibility for merger of political parties. Thus the resolution to merge the TD Legislature Party in Rajya Sabha with the BJP will not stand. In fact, there is no truth in their claim that they adopted the resolution after holding a meeting as no such meeting took place. The Rajya Sabha Chairman has not accepted the merger so far as no official statement has been issued in this regard. The Chairman assured to take further action after looking into the legal issues,’’ the MPs said.