New Delhi: As many as 111 MPs and MLAs changed their parties after winning elections to Parliament or state assemblies between 2022 and 2026, with the highest number of such switches recorded in Nagaland and West Bengal, according to an analysis by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch.
The analysis, which covered elections and bypolls during the period, found that 26 Lok Sabha members, seven Rajya Sabha members and 78 MLAs changed parties.
ADR said the cases covered individual defections, party mergers, resignations followed by bypoll victories and disqualification followed by winning a seat in a bypoll.
Nagaland accounted for the highest number of cases at 32, all involving MLAs. The bulk of these cases were linked to a realignment involving the ruling Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) and the Naga People’s Front (NPF), with the NPF emerging as the largest recipient of lawmakers in the ADR analysis.
Overall, 25 legislators originally elected from the NDPP were among those who changed parties, while 32 lawmakers joined the NPF.
West Bengal recorded 20 cases, all involving Lok Sabha members. All 20 were originally elected on All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) tickets and subsequently moved to the Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI), according to the analysis.
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The MPs have claimed a merger with the NCPI and the matter is before Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla.
Telangana was next with nine cases, all involving MLAs. The nine were legislators elected from the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), while the Congress emerged as the principal recipient of lawmakers in the state.
Goa recorded eight cases, with Congress MLAs moving to the BJP, while Punjab also accounted for eight cases, including six Rajya Sabha members and two MLAs.
Maharashtra recorded six cases, all involving Lok Sabha members elected from Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), who subsequently moved to the Shiv Sena led by Eknath Shinde.
Meghalaya had six MLA cases and Manipur five, while Arunachal Pradesh and Gujarat recorded four each.
Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan recorded two cases each, while Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Sikkim and Uttar Pradesh had one case each. Delhi accounted for one Rajya Sabha member changing party.
At the party level, the NDPP recorded the highest number of exits at 25, followed by the AITC with 20 and the Congress with 19. The BRS accounted for nine, AAP and NCP seven each, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) six, JD(U) five and NPP four.
Together, NDPP, AITC and Congress accounted for 64 of the 111 cases, or 58 per cent.
The NPF received the highest number of lawmakers who changed parties, at 32, followed by the BJP with 29 and NCPI with 20. The Congress received nine, Shiv Sena eight, NPP six and People’s Party of Arunachal four. The NPF, BJP and NCPI together accounted for 81 of the 111 lawmakers, or 73 per cent.
ADR said recent defections had also been associated with the fall of governments in some state assemblies. It also clarified the exercise was not necessarily exhaustive because there is no systematically maintained and readily accessible official database of legislators changing parties.
The watchdog has recommended changes to the anti-defection framework, including transferring the power to decide disqualification petitions from presiding officers to the President, in the case of MPs, and governors, in the case of MLAs, based on the Election Commission’s advice.
It has also suggested a time limit for deciding disqualification petitions and restrictions on defectors holding public office until they are re-elected.
