In a fresh round of political defections, six MPs of the Shiv Sena (UBT) are likely to join the Sena’s breakaway faction led by Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. Shinde, who split the Shiv Sena and formed a government in the state in alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2022, has induced more defections now. The Uddhav Thackeray-led faction of the Sena alleges that the exercise – termed Operation Tiger – involves a price of Rs 50 crore for each MP, with Rs 15 crore paid in advance. It is being claimed that the deserters will escape disqualification under the anti-defection law since two-thirds of the party’s MPs are switching camps. This contention will be tested by provisions in the anti-defection law which stipulate that a bloc of MPs can join another party only after their parent party formalises a similar merger.

These defections follow recent crossovers from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Trinamool Congress (TMC). In April, seven of the AAP’s 10 MPs in the Rajya Sabha joined the BJP. Following the TMC’s rout in the West Bengal Assembly elections in May, 20 of the party’s 28 MPs in the Lok Sabha announced their merger with the Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI), an obscure political outfit based in Tripura. Ironically, some of the leaders of the NCPI, which has no MLAs or MPs, were not aware of this high-profile defection. No party appears safe from desertions now. Reports indicate possibilities of a repeat in the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar), leaving their leaders on the edge. The two outfits have 37 MPs and eight MPs, respectively, in the Lok Sabha.

In the backstage of this churn is its biggest beneficiary, the BJP, as it steps up efforts to increase support in Parliament. The defections flout the accepted rules of political conduct and violate the basics of parliamentary democracy. These shifts are not grounded in political convictions or ideologies; they are about power and a fear of harassment and persecution. The Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, which was introduced to curb political opportunism and defections, is a dead letter now. When legislators elected as representatives of parties with stated ideologies switch over to other parties, they normalise a political culture of brazen transactionalism, further eroding public trust in the electoral process. Notably, the conduct of the Lok Sabha and Assembly speakers and the Rajya Sabha Chairperson in the relevant cases has not inspired confidence in restoring this trust. (Source: DH)