NEW DELHI: Turncoat candidates face varied electoral outcomes across states, with some victorious while others suffer defeat in recent elections.
In the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections, many candidates switched between parties as some were denied tickets, while others switched due to the fear of losing elections. According to an expert, turncoats are not favoured much by the public in the present day. Earlier some such leaders had control over the voters and they were connected with the public, so switching sides would affect the parties they went into after defecting. But today people see the game of switching political parties as a way to gain personal benefits. So, we see a lot of turncoats losing elections.
Ritesh Pandey, the incumbent MP from Ambedkar Nagar who switched from BSP to BJP just before the elections, was defeated by Samajwadi Party’s Lali Varma, while Danish Ali, formerly with the BSP and moved to Congress, lost his bid for the Amroha seat by around 30,000 votes. Ramesh Bind, previously the Bhadohi MP, who shifted from BJP to SP to contest from Mirzapur, lost by 38,000 votes. Other candidates who transitioned from BSP to BJP, including Suresh Singh, Hitendra Kumar, Nand Kishore Pundhir, Sarika Singh Baghel, Sacchidanand Pandey, and Rajendra Singh Solanki, also faced defeats in their respective constituencies. The two candidates, who could retain their seats despite changing parties, are Afzal Ansari from Ghazipur and Ram Shiromani Verma from Shravasti. Both the leaders had moved from BSP to SP before the elections. Afzal Ansari managed to retain his Ghazipur seat while Ram Shiromani Varma defeated BJP’s Saket Mishra from Shravast.
In Punjab, three incumbent MPs switched sides to BJP, including two from Congress: Preneet Kaur, MP from Patiala, and Ravneet Bittu from Ludhiana, while AAP’s lone MP, Sushil Rinku from Jalandhar. All three lost in their respective constituencies. Preneet in 2019 had won the Patiala seat on a Congress ticket. This time, she lost to Congress’ Dharamvir Gandhi, another turncoat from AAP, by 14,831 votes.
In Rajasthan, at least five turncoats were in fray, out of which only two could win. Ummed Ram Beniwal, who won from Jaisalmer-Barmer constituency, joined Congress from Rashtriya Loktantrik Party ahead of the elections, and he defeated Independent Ravinder Bhati by a margin of about 1 lakh votes, while Mahendrajit Malviya, who switched to BJP from Congress, was defeated by Bharat Adivasi Party’s Rajkumar Raout by a margin of about 2.5 lakh votes. Rahul Kaswan, the incumbent BJP MP from Churu who switched to Congress after he was denied a ticket, defeated BJP candidate Devendra Jhajharia by a margin of 72 thousand votes, while the granddaughter of stalwart Congress leader Nathuram Mirdha, Jyoti Mirdha, who switched to the BJP, faced defeat in Nagaur by Hanuman Beniwal with a margin of 42 thousand votes. Another BJP turncoat, Pralhad Gunjal, who switched to Congress, faced defeat in Kota by Om Birla by a margin of 42 thousand votes.