India, June 22 -- Last weekend would have been painful for Uddhav Thackeray, with six out of the nine members of Parliament belonging to his party - Shiv Sena (UBT) - defecting. There are rumours that the Samajwadi Party (SP) is also set to suffer defections. Can it be true? SP supremo Akhilesh Yadav has vehemently denied the possibility. But Thackeray had been denying defections just as vehemently two days before these became clear.

This trend of defections began with the disintegration of the Aam Aadmi Party's parliamentary party in April. Where will it end? Is it part of a bigger strategy? Political pundits feel that the Union government wants to urgently pass the delimitation and one-nation-one-election Bills in Parliament, and the r...