India, March 23 -- Kerala votes on April 9, and political parties have been quick to announce their lineups. What is unusual this time is the high presence, by Kerala standards, of turncoats in the candidate lists. This should be particularly disturbing for the ruling Left Democratic Front: Two former CPI MLAs and a former CPM MLA, joined the BJP when denied seats (all three are now BJP candidates); two others are contesting as candidates of the Congress-led United Democratic Front; and besides these five, two senior CPM functionaries, in the party's red fort of Kannur, rebelled against the party and joined the fray as independents (they are now backed by the UDF).

Parties splitting and/or shifting alliances are not unusual in Kerala's c...