New Delhi: Telugu Desam Party is in dire straits post the 17th Lok Sabha election that took place last month. Four out of six parliamentarians are all set to switch allegiance from Chandrababu Naidu’s party to BJP. Out of the four, half of them have even made their decisions public.
“Yes I am leaving TDP. I will join BJP,” TG Venkatesh of Telugu Desam Party was quoted as saying by news agency ANI. “I have been a former member of ABVP and the BJYM (the BJP youth wing),” he further said during a media interaction Thursday.
Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) is the students’ wing of the BJP and is associated with the saffron party’s ideological mentor Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.
Venkatesh apart, senior TDP leader YS Chowdary too is on his way to BJP and admitted that in as many words when asked. Party supremo N Chandrababu Naidu is currently vacationing in the US.
It may be recalled that Naidu, after isolating TDP from the NDA, was instrumental in forming the opposition joining hands with the then Congress president Rahul Gandhi. The strategy failed miserably as BJP swept the parliamentary election. Naidu’s arch-rival YSR Congress chief Jaganmohan Reddy not only defeated Naidu in the state Assembly elections but also managed to win 22 Lok Sabha seats out of a total of 25 seats in the state.