3 TDP, 2 Congress leaders join BJP

In a major setback to the Opposition, three Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and two Congress leaders on Thursday joined Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at party headquarters here. TDP leaders E Peddi Reddy, Bode Janardhan and Suresh Reddy and Congress leaders Shashidhar Reddy and Sheik Rahmatullah joined the BJP of Telangana unit in the presence of party's GVL Narasimha Rao.

This big blow to the opposition comes a day after N Chandrababu Naidu-led TDP's spokesperson Lanka Dinakar joined the BJP in the presence of its working president JP Nadda at party headquarters in Delhi. Earlier, TDP Rajya Sabha MPs -- YS Chowdary, C M Ramesh, T G Venkatesh, all from Andhra Pradesh, and G Mohan Rao who hails from Telangana, had joined the BJP in presence JP Nadda.

This comes a month after TDP was decimated to just 23 seats in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly election while Jagan Mohan Reddy's YSRCP got an absolute majority by winning 151 out of 175 seats. In Lok Sabha too, TDP could win only 3 seats in the recent elections.