New Delhi, Sept. 25 -- As many as 111 MPs and MLAs changed political parties after winning elections to Parliament or state assemblies between 2022 and 2026, with Nagaland and West Bengal recording the highest number of such cases, according to an analysis by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch.
The analysis covered elections and bypolls during the seat in a bypoll.
Nagaland recorded 32 cases, all involving MLAs. Most were linked to a political realignment involving the ruling Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) and the Naga People's Front (NPF). The NPF emerged as the largest recipient of lawmakers, with 32 members joining the party. Of those who switched, 25 had originally been elected from the NDPP.
West Bengal recorded 20 cases, all involving Lok Sabha members. All 20 were elected on All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) tickets before moving to the Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI). The MPs have claimed a merger with NCPI, and the matter is currently before Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla.
Telangana recorded nine cases, all involving MLAs elected from the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), with the Congress receiving the largest number of lawmakers. Goa and Punjab recorded eight cases each. In Goa, Congress MLAs moved to the BJP, while Punjab's cases involved six Rajya Sabha members and two MLAs.
Maharashtra recorded six cases, involving Lok Sabha members elected from Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) who later moved to the Shiv Sena led by Eknath Shinde. Meghalaya recorded six MLA cases and Manipur five. Arunachal Pradesh and Gujarat had four each, while Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan recorded two each. Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Sikkim, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi had one case each.
At the party level, NDPP recorded the highest number of exits at 25, followed by AITC with 20 and Congress with 19. BRS had nine, AAP and NCP seven each, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) six, JD(U) five and NPP four. The three largest sources, NDPP, AITC and Congress, accounted for 64 cases, or 58 per cent.
The NPF received 32 lawmakers, followed by BJP with 29 and NCPI with 20. Together, the three parties accounted for 81 cases, or 73 per cent.
ADR said defections had been linked to the fall of governments in some states. It also said its findings may not be exhaustive because there is no systematically maintained official database of lawmakers changing parties.
The watchdog has proposed changes to the anti-defection framework, including shifting decisions on disqualification petitions from presiding officers to the President for MPs and governors for MLAs, based on Election Commission advice.
It has also called for fixed timelines for such decisions and restrictions on defectors holding public office until they are re-elected.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.