Thursday, May 5 2005 13:29 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Put on the defensive by ally Telugu Desam Party's (TDP) decision not to continue Parliament boycott along with it, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today (May 5, 2005) said the party was "not a part of National Democratic Alliance (NDA)".

BJP Parliamentary Party spokesman V K Malhotra, however, acknowledged that his party had requested TDP a number of times but the latter had not heeded to it.

"TDP is not a part of NDA," Malhotra told reporters after the BJP Parliamentary Party meeting in New Delhi when asked to comment on TDP's decision to discontinue boycott of Budget Session.

He said the BJP leaders had talked to TDP leaders and requested them to continue the boycott along with NDA but the latter said they wanted to attend Parliament to counter allegations levelled by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA).

TDP, which had been in dilemma for the past few days on continuing the six-day-old boycott, today broke ranks with BJP-led NDA and decided to participate in the proceedings of Parliament.

A decision to attend Parliament was taken at a meeting of Telugu Desam Parliamentary Party.

This is the first major occasion when TDP has had to dissociate from BJP in its more than seven years of association.