Defection before Election
Defection before Election
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Recently, Swami Prasad Maurya (Minister of Labour and employment in Yogi Adityanath Government) along with three other MLAs joined the Samajwadi Party. Other names are also expected to hop as opposition. Similar trend may follow ahead of the February 20 polls in Punjab. This phenomenon of defection always comes with the season of elections and sometimes during house sittings of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.
Defection is the change of party allegiance from the party on which a person got elected to a legislation body to a different party.
A defector is a person in politics who gives up their own political party and joins other alliances for benefit. The term is often used pejoratively for someone who acts as a traitor to his original side. Candidates can be lured with money, rank and other securities.
Defection is no more a pre-election phenomenon. In May 2019, two legislators along with 60 councillors from Trinamool Congress (TMC) in West-Bengal joined Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Post poll exodus from TMC was evident by the loss of Mukul Roy and many other leaders joining BJP. But it didn’t take long for the ‘Ghar Vapasi’ of many leaders in June,2021. As Mukul Roy defected to Trinamool Congress from BJP after the state polls, it brought in a plea from BJP, seeking his disqualification as MLA. The Supreme Court on 17 Jan, 2022 expressed hope that the West Bengal assembly Speaker would decide on disqualification within two weeks.
The Anti-Defection law came into effect on 18 March 1985 when the Rajiv Gandhi Government inserted the 10th schedule in the Constitution. Need of this act came to the forefront when a Haryana MLA Gaya Lal changed his party 3 times a day in 1967. He became the symbol of defection and also gained the title of ‘Aya Ram, Gaya Ram’. From then onwards, this title was used to denote defectors. The law deals with the issue of disqualification of a member for defying party’s direction by voting or abstaining vote. Law does not prohibit defections but speaks of disqualification of individual members.
Primarily, there is no clarity on the definition of Legislative Party – whether it includes members of Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha in Delhi or members of Assembly at state level. Secondly, what if a partner of a pre-election alliance ditches it and joins another party? Thirdly, there is no time limit for the speaker or chairperson to act on a disqualification petition. Current Anti-Defection law has proven ineffective in preventing lucrative deals and political instability.
According to a report of the candidates’ poll affidavits released in September, 2021— Congress suffered the most in terms of defections since 2014, followed by Bahujan Samaj Party(BSP) while Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam lost the least since 2014.
Diwakar Tewari is a political reporter for the 'The Pigeon' looking to dive into the different dimensions of society with the angle of politics. He is currently pursuing his M.A in Communication from University of Hyderabad.
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