New Delhi, Sept. 26 -- West Bengal has emerged as the second-largest contributor to post-election party switching among sitting MPs, with 20 Lok Sabha MPs accounting for 18 per cent of the 111 such cases recorded nationally between 2022 and July 2026, according to an analysis by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).

The ADR wants law to bar turncoats from assuming public office, to disqualify for defection.

The ADR report, released on September 24, analysed sitting MPs and MLAs who changed political parties after winning elections to the Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha and state Assemblies during the period.

Of the 111 cases, 26 were Lok Sabha MPs, seven Rajya Sabha

MPs and 78 MLAs. Bengal's 20 cases were all from the Lok Sabha.

Nagaland recorded the highest number with 32 cases, while Bengal followed with 20. Telangana had nine, Goa and Punjab eight each, and Maharashtra six.

The Bengal cases listed by ADR involve all 20 AITC Lok Sabha MPs moving to the Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI) on June 14, 2026. The list includes MPs from constituencies across the state.

At the national level, AITC was the second-largest source of legislators who changed parties, with 20 cases, behind NDPP's 25 and ahead of Congress's 19.

Together, NDPP, AITC and Congress accounted for 64, or 58 per cent, of all 111 cases. On the receiving side, NPF accounted for 32 entrants, BJP 29 and NCPI 20, together making up 73 per cent of all party switches.

ADR has classified the cases into individual defections, party mergers, resignations followed by bye-election victories, and disqualifications followed by bye-election victories.

It cautioned that the list may not be exhaustive because systematically maintained official data on such switches is not readily available.

The report also flags the implications of post-election realignments for the relationship between electoral mandates and party representation, and recommends changes to the anti-defection framework, including a time-bound mechanism for deciding disqualification petitions.

The ADR wanted amendment to the 10th Schedule of the Constitution as per the recommendations of various committees includibg the Dinesh Goswami Committee (1990).

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.