44% MLAs who switched parties during 2016-2020 joined BJP: Report
A fresh analysis of the legislators who switched political parties and re-contested elections between 2016 and 2020 has found that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerged as the biggest gainer while the Congress party saw most of its MLAs leaving for other parties. The report was published by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) on Thursday. Here are more details on this.
182 of 405 MLAs joined the BJP
According to the report, of the 405 MLAs who switched parties and re-contested polls during the said period, 182 joined the BJP, followed by 38 who chose to join the Congress and 25 who joined the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS). On the other hand, as many as 170 Congress MLAs left it to join other parties while only 18 BJP legislators switched parties.
Defections led to fall of state governments, report noted
The report noted that the defection of MLAs was the cause of governments falling in the states of Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Goa, Arunachal Pradesh, and Karnataka in the recent past. "It is to be noted that the recent fall of governments in Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Goa, Arunachal Pradesh, and Karnataka State Assemblies were due to defections of their MLAs (sic)," it read.
Average assets of re-contesting MLAs grew by 39%
Further, out of the 12 Lok Sabha members who switched parties, five were from the BJP. In the Rajya Sabha, of the 17 members who quit to join other parties, seven belonged to the Congress. The report also revealed that the average assets of the re-contesting MLAs and MPs had grown by as much as 39%.
'Political situation bound to deteriorate further'
The report further stated that the most plausible causes of defections were the nexus of money and muscle power, and the absence of laws on the functioning of political parties, among others. "Until and unless these trends are not reined in, our current electoral and political situation is bound to deteriorate further (sic)," the report read.
