As many as 111 MPs and MLAs changed their parties after winning elections to Parliament or state assemblies between 2022 and 2026, with the highest number of such switches recorded in Nagaland and West Bengal, according to an analysis by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch.
ADR said the cases covered individual defections, party mergers, resignations followed by bypoll victories and disqualification followed by winning a seat in a bypoll.
The bulk of these cases were linked to a realignment involving the ruling Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) and the Naga People’s Front (NPF), with the NPF emerging as the largest recipient of lawmakers in the ADR analysis. Telangana was next with nine cases, all involving MLAs. The nine were legislators elected from the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), while the Congress emerged as the principal recipient of lawmakers in the state. The BRS accounted for nine, AAP and NCP seven each, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) six, JD(U) five and NPP four. The Congress received nine, Shiv Sena eight, NPP six and People’s Party of Arunachal four.
Nagaland accounted for the highest number of cases at 32, all involving MLAs. West Bengal recorded 20 cases, all involving Lok Sabha members. All 20 were originally elected on All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) tickets and subsequently moved to the Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI), according to the analysis. At the party level, the NDPP recorded the highest number of exits at 25, followed by the AITC with 20 and the Congress with 19. The NPF received the highest number of lawmakers who changed parties, at 32, followed by the BJP with 29 and NCPI with 20. The NPF, BJP and NCPI together accounted for 81 of the 111 lawmakers, or 73 per cent.
ADR said the cases covered individual defections, party mergers, resignations followed by bypoll victories and disqualification followed by winning a seat in a bypoll.
