Maximum defections took place once elections approached.
New Delhi: As the election season begins, so does the season of defections. The Sunday Guardian tried to track such political leaders who have switched their political affiliations in the last six months in the five election bound states. According to The Sunday Guardian analysis, at least 80 lawmakers and senior political leaders from the five election bound states of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Goa, Uttarakhand and Manipur have switched their political affiliations in the last six months, specifically between August last year and January this year.
These 76 lawmakers who have defected from one political party to the other are either public representatives (MLAs, MPs, Mayor, Minister, etc) in various capacities or have held senior positions in their original party. Apart from them, there are hundreds of other political leaders who have held important organisational posts at the district level or at the state level.
This phenomenon has taken place cutting across party lines.
The BJP which is in power in four of the five election bound states, have lost 21 of their lawmakers, who have left citing differences with the state leadership or for “greener pastures”. The recent spate of resignations by BJP lawmakers has come from Uttar Pradesh which goes to the polls from 10 February. In the last one week, at least three Cabinet Ministers, Swami Prasad Maurya, Dara Singh Chauhan and Dharam Singh Saini have quit the party along with at least 11 other MLAs.
Both Swami Prasad Maurya and Dara Singh Chauhan were with the BSP and joined the BJP in 2015, got elected on a BJP ticket and were made ministers in the Yogi Adityanath government. They had however quit the BJP now and are likely to join the Samajwadi Party ahead of this year’s assembly polls. While Dharam Singh Saini was earlier with the BSP and SP.
Similarly, a former BJP Minister from Goa and someone who was known to be close to former Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar quit the BJP earlier this week and joined the Congress, citing that the “BJP in Goa is not the same after Parrikar.” Along with him six other BJP MLAs quit the party recently to join either the Congress or the Aam Aadmi Party. While one minister and one MLA have left the party to join the Congress.
While the BJP lost 17 of its lawmakers in the five poll-bound states, it inducted 36 lawmakers and senior political leaders from different political parties in these states.
The BJP has seen the highest number of inductions in Uttar Pradesh, where 13 lawmakers joined it, followed by Punjab where there were 11 inductions of senior lawmakers.
In Punjab, several lawmakers who were seen close to the Badals in the Akali Dal have joined BJP and some from the Akali Dal have switched to the AAP. Several political leaders from the Congress in Punjab have also switched over either to the AAP or the BJP sensing that the Congress is on a shaky ground, with the constant tussle between Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi and Pradesh Congress president Navjot Singh Siddhu.
Sitting Congress MLAs like Fateh Singh Bajwa, former Congress minister Gurmeet Singh Sodhi and a close associate of Punjab’s Congress Chief Minister Channi, Jaswinder Singh Dhaliwal have joined the BJP recently. While Akali MLAs like Jagdeep Singh Nakai and Gurtej Singh Ghuriania have joined the BJP.
Former Punjab Chief Minister and long-time Congress loyalist Amarinder Singh also quit the Congress in October 2021 and formed his own political outfit which is likely to contest this year’s Assembly polls.
Several Congress leaders from Goa have also abandoned their long-term association with the party, sensing the “shaky” ground, and have either joined the TMC or the AAP.
Former Goa Chief Minister and senior Congress leader, Luizinho Faleiro joined the TMC in September last year, making it one of the biggest catches for the TMC in Goa. This was followed by some other Congress leaders joining the TMC.
In Punjab, AAP MLAs like Jagtar Singh Jagga and Rupinder Kaur Ruby joined the Congress. AAP lost a senior leader and its former Chief Ministerial candidate from Goa, Elvis Gomes to the Congress earlier last year.
Some leaders also defect from one party to another and then return to their parent party, within months or days. For example, Congress’ Sri Hargovindpura MLA, Balwinder Singh Laddi from Punjab left the party and joined the BJP in the early weeks of January only to return to the Congress just days after. Similarly, Lavoo Mamledar a former Congress MLA along with several other leaders joined the TMC in September 2021 only to leave the party in December.
Similar reports of defections came before the West Bengal Assembly elections in April-May last year when scores of TMC leaders were making a beeline for BJP and once the BJP lost the elections, these same leaders started making a beeline for the TMC.
The Sunday Guardian analysis shows that defections increase manifold as elections approach. The first 13 days of January and the month of December 2021 saw the maximum number of political leaders switching sides, as elections in these polls bound states drew closer. Until 13 January this year, 21 political lawmakers and leaders switched camps. December 2021 witnessed 17 such instances. November and October 2021 witnessed significantly smaller numbers of such defections by political leaders.