It looks like the Telugu Desam Party, which had once enjoyed the main opposition status in parliament is going to become extinct in Delhi by next year, if the present pace of defections is any indication.
Out of six Rajya Sabha members of the TDP, four MPs – Y S Chowdary, C M Ramesh, T G Venkatesh and G Mohan Rao – defected to the BJP on Thursday evening.
On Friday, Raya Sabha chairman and Vice President of India M Venkaiah Naidu announced that their merger with the BJP had been approved and they would be hereafter designated as BJP MPs.
According to reports from New Delhi, another Rajya Sabha member Kanakamedala Ravindra Kumar is also all set to jump the fence into the BJP by Saturday evening.
He is expected to meet BJP working president J P Nadda and formally join the party in New Delhi.
It is learnt Ravindra Kumar had also taken the decision to defect following suggestions from a senior Supreme Court judge.
This will leave the TDP with just one Rajya Sabha member Thota Sitarama Lakshmi. However, she reportedly conveyed to the other MPs that she would not quit the TDP since she has term only up to April next.
It would mean, the TDP will have no representation in the Rajya Sabha at least till 2024. And there are also reports that the three Lok Sabha members of the TDP are also being lured by the BJP leadership using pressure tactics.
If the saffron party succeeds in luring the three LS members also, the TDP will be completely wiped out of the parliament in the coming days!