Four TDP MPs likely to join BJP

Amaravati: Four Rajya Sabha members of Telugu Desam Party (TDP) are likely to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), TDP sources said on Thursday.
The meeting of the MPs with BJP President Amit Shah in New Delhi on Thursday triggered speculations that they may soon switch loyalties.
Y.S. Chowdary, C.M. Ramesh, T.G. Venkatesh, and G. Mohan Rao called on Shah and expressed their willingness to join the BJP. They are likely to send a letter to the Rajya Sabha Chairman, informing them of their decision.
The development may plunge the TDP into a crisis at a time when party President and former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu is on a foreign trip along with family members.
Chowdary, a former central Minister, and Ramesh are considered close to Chandrababu Naidu. The two MPs had faced a series of searches by Income Tax, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) in recent months.
In another development, some TDP leaders including former legislators held a secret meeting at Kakinada amid reports that they are planning to join either BJP or YSR Congress Party (YSRCP).