From sequestering MLAs in luxury hotels to knocking the Supreme Court's doors with disqualification petitions, come election season and parties struggle to keep their flock together. 

The fear?

Their members’ party-hopping tendencies. 

‘Turncoats’, ‘rebels’, ‘deserters’ – no matter how unforgiving the labels are, in recent times, defectors switching sides, have often held the fortunes of political parties in the palm of their hands across different states.

Under the infamous Aaya-Ram-Gaya-Ram doctrine, defectors had governments in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh fall like a house of cards and those in power in Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka on the tenterhooks for weeks. It was the BJP and its allies that raked in benefits or stood to benefit in all the cases.

Turncoats from one of its arch rivals, the Aam Aadmi Party, helped the BJP register a remarkable victory in Delhi’s recently concluded mayoral elections. The AAP would have been the biggest party in the house with its candidates holding the top posts had its members not decided to jump ship and join the BJP.

In December 2022, the AAP had ended 15 years of BJP rule and emerged as the winner in the MCD elections with 134 councillors. The BJP had secured 104 seats, out of the 250 seats that went for polls, at the time. 

Come April 2025, the numbers looked different and the power balance tilted in favour of the BJP. 

BJP’s Raja Iqbal Singh won the mayoral post securing a whopping 133 out of 142 votes. The Congress’s candidate Mandeep Singh managed to poll only eight votes. One vote was declared invalid. (Apart from the councillors, the electorate college for mayoral elections includes 14 MLAs nominated by the assembly speaker in proportion to each party’s strength, and Delhi’s seven Lok Sabha MPs and three Rajya Sabha MPs.)

Four days ahead of the mayoral polls, the AAP had announced on April 21 that it will boycott the elections. The party had then alleged that despite losing the popular mandate in the December 2022 elections, the BJP was resorting to 'backdoor’ and ‘undemocratic’ means to wrest control of the capital’s civic body. 

Declaring that her party will not field candidates for the mayoral elections, AAP leader Atishi said, “To win now, we would have to indulge in the same kind of politics - breaking and buying councillors…” “We refuse to be a part of that game,” the former chief minister said. 

BJP leader and Delhi CM Rekha Gupta deflected the allegations claiming that the AAP’s decision to not contest the polls proved that the party was aware of its weakening grip on the capital’s voters. 

On its part, the BJP had set the wheels in motion to consolidate its numbers months before elections for the mayor’s post were announced. At least 19 AAP councillors had joined the saffron party in six months. While many were first time councillors, several had a colorful history of crossing over........

© newslaundry