BJP’s Turncoat Trend: 600 Leaders in 10 Years! Is BJP the New Home for Defector Leaders? A Deep Dive into the Numbers

BJP’s Turncoat Trend: As soon as the election season starts in India, the game of defection has started. In the last 7 days, more than two dozen leaders of 4 states have changed sides. Those who switched parties include leaders ranging from former Chief Minister to Mayor level. 

Currently, the game of defection has started from Maharashtra, where former Chief Minister and veteran Congressman Ashok Chavan joined BJP. Rajasthan Congress MLA Mahendrajit Singh Malviya also left the hand and took the lotus hem.

There was talk of former Madhya Pradesh CM Kamal Nath changing party, but at the end he took a U-turn. However, Kamal Nath’s close aide and Jabalpur Mayor Jagat Bahadur Annu definitely left Congress and joined BJP.

A figure of defection in India

The game of defection in India started from Haryana in 1960-70. Gradually this political disease spread throughout India. After 2014, the cases of defection of leaders increased significantly. 

According to the Association for Democratic Reforms, more than 1 thousand leaders of MP and MLA level participated in the game of defection in 2014-21.

In these 7 years, maximum migration took place from Congress. From 2014-21, 399 MLA-MP level leaders left the Congress. Bahujan Samaj Party was at second position. The number of leaders leaving BSP was around 170. The leaders’ disillusionment with the ruling BJP has not diminished. In 7 years, 144 leaders left BJP and joined other parties.

Chief Ministers and Union Minister level leaders have also been among the leaders who changed parties in India after 2014. Since 2014 till now, 8 former Chief Ministers have changed sides. Among these, the names of Ashok Chavan, Captain Amarinder Singh and Narayan Rane are prominent. At the same time, more than 20 Union Ministers also participated in the game of defection. 

BJP becomes den of turncoats…

1. After 2014, most turncoat leaders have joined BJP

After 2014, most turncoat leaders have gone to BJP. According to the ADR report, only from 2014 to 2021, 426 MLA-MP level leaders have joined BJP. 

At the same time, from 2021 to 2023, about 200 leaders of MLA and MP level joined BJP. From 2021 to 2023, the maximum number of defection games took place in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.

During this period, only 176 defector leaders joined Congress. Apart from Congress and BJP, the most favorite destination for defectors are parties like NDA’s allies Shiv Sena and LJP.  

2. The turncoats have the command of 7 states within the BJP

After coming to power at the Centre, the BJP also rewarded the turncoats with a lot of posts. At present BJP has given the command of 7 states to turncoat leaders. These include states like Bihar, Assam, Jharkhand and Bengal. 

Samrat Chaudhary is the leader of the legislative party and state president in Bihar. Samrat started his political career with Rashtriya Janata Dal. Later, after leaving JDU and us, he joined BJP. There are total 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar.

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma is also an original Congressman. He changed sides and joined BJP in 2015. There are total 14 Lok Sabha seats in Assam.

The command of Jharkhand is with Babulal Marandi. Marandi is currently the state president, but he is also counted among the turncoat leaders. Before joining BJP, Marandi was the chief of JVM. There are total 13 Lok Sabha seats in Jharkhand.

In West Bengal also, BJP has expressed confidence in Shubhendu Adhikari, who came after changing party. Shubhendu is the leader of opposition in the Bengal Assembly. Shubhendu started his career with Trinamool Congress. There are 42 Lok Sabha seats in Bengal. 

Apart from these states, BJP is also in the hands of turncoats in Arunachal, Tripura and Manipur. The Chief Ministers of all three states have previously been in Congress.

3. Voter base increased due to defectors in 5 states.

There are 5 such states of the country including Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, where BJP was able to increase the voter base only because of defectors. In the 2014 elections, BJP gave tickets to turncoats on about 10 seats. 

In the 2017 assembly elections, BJP actively catered to the turncoats. BJP benefited from this and formed the government by winning more than 300 seats. After the elections, the influence of turncoats was visible in the UP cabinet also. Defector leaders like Swami Prasad, Rita Bahuguna were given big portfolios.

Like UP, the turncoats in Madhya Pradesh also worked to increase the support base of BJP. In 2018, when power in Madhya Pradesh went out of the hands of BJP, 28 Congress MLAs defected under the leadership of Jyotiraditya Scindia. 

Everyone supported BJP, after which BJP was successful in forming the government. After this, BJP became stronger in Madhya Pradesh. 

In West Bengal too, the leaders who changed parties in 2019 led BJP to a record victory. 30 percent of BJP MPs who won from Bengal in 2019 came from other parties.

In Assam too, to increase its support base, BJP took the help of leaders from other parties. 

What is BJP’s official stand on defection?

Recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had given a statement regarding the exodus of leaders before the elections. He had said, “There is only one family politics in Congress. The party is trapped in brotherhood and nepotism, that is why leaders are coming here from there.

BJP has formed joining committees in many states to accept the turncoats. The work of the committee is to bring leaders from other parties’ support base into its fold. 

Anti-defection law and its condition in India

To prevent defection, the 52nd amendment was made to the Constitution of India in the year 1985, after which the 10th Schedule came into existence. According to this, the Speaker has been given the right to take action against the MLAs. In this, the right to take disqualification action has been given for their conduct both inside and outside. 

However, it has been seen in many cases that despite the complaint, no action has been taken. For example, during the 17th Lok Sabha, Trinamool Congress had filed a complaint against its three MPs Shishir Adhikar, Divyendu Adhikari and Sunil Mandal in 2021, but even after the end of the session, no action was taken against all three.

There is no rule in the defection law to take any action if two-thirds of the MLAs separate together. It has been seen at many places that to avoid action, MLAs leave the party altogether. Anti-defection law applies only to elected public representatives, hence big and small leaders easily change parties.