Poor Chandrababu Naidu! He can neither contest or fight like YS Jagan Mohan Reddy. Nor can he blame the ruling party like the Congress in Telangana. He can only crib and complain. Though four of his MPs, including two of his closest associates, have defected to the BJP en masse, he can neither go to the court or take up the issue with the deputy chairperson of the Rajya Sabha.
He knows that technically and legally, what his four MPs had done is not defection, but a merger. Two thirds of a party can merge into another party and the Anti-Defection Law does not apply to them. Even otherwise, he cannot raise his voice because, he has encouraged the defection of 23 MLAS belonging to the YSRCP and made some of them ministers too. Also, what he did was not merger, but defection. The case is still pending.
That's not all! Chandrababu's problems are only rising. If two of his three Lok Sabha MPs defect, even that would be deemed as a merger. Kesineni Nani is already breathing down Babu's neck. If Galla Jaidev, who too has suffered CBI raids, joins him, they could merge the Parliamentary Party into the BJP. That will effectively finish off the TDP in both Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha.
He knows that technically and legally, what his four MPs had done is not defection, but a merger. Two thirds of a party can merge into another party and the Anti-Defection Law does not apply to them. Even otherwise, he cannot raise his voice because, he has encouraged the defection of 23 MLAS belonging to the YSRCP and made some of them ministers too. Also, what he did was not merger, but defection. The case is still pending.
That's not all! Chandrababu's problems are only rising. If two of his three Lok Sabha MPs defect, even that would be deemed as a merger. Kesineni Nani is already breathing down Babu's neck. If Galla Jaidev, who too has suffered CBI raids, joins him, they could merge the Parliamentary Party into the BJP. That will effectively finish off the TDP in both Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha.