The story of India's post-election defection wave since 2022, in charts

Summary

Between 2022 and 2026, over 100 Indian lawmakers at the central and state levels switched parties, largely leveraging legal loopholes in the anti-defection law. The NDA has been the primary beneficiary.

The National Democratic Alliance's (NDA) tally in the Lok Sabha is now at 319 -- up from 293 won in the 2024 general elections, or nearly 9% higher. The shift happened after six Members of Parliament (MPs) from Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) joined the NDA-ally Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena this June, and 20 MPs from the Trinamool Congress (TMC) joined the little-known Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI) that extended support to the ruling alliance after West Bengal elections in May. The shift from the TMC, following the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s historic victory in the state, was enough to make the NCPI the fifth-largest party in the lower house and the second-biggest NDA ally currently.

These 26 post-election switches in Lok Sabha, along with seven in Rajya Sabha, are among over 100 such cases since 2022.

The spread

To be sure, political defections or party switches/mergers have always happened. However, the lack of standardized, consistent, and easily accessible official data on political switches limits analysis to relying on compilations by democracy watchdogs. The latest analysis of sitting legislators by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), released last month, shows that 33 MPs (including seven Rajya Sabha MPs) and 78 MLAs switched parties after winning elections between 2022 and 2026 (until 12 July).

"Such large-scale post-election realignments -- whether through individual switches or mass mergers -- once again demonstrate how the mandate given by voters is frequently undermined by the politics of convenience, power and opportunism," ADR said in its report.

Apart from all 33 MP switches that benefitted the NDA, a further breakdown of assembly-level data shows that 24 of 78 MLAs switched from non-NDA parties to NDA-allied parties, while 43 have moved between two NDA-allied parties. The NDA has been the largest beneficiary, accounting for 57 switches of 111; if the NDA-allied parties are included, that number rises to 100.

Law or loophole?

Though the anti-defection law, or the Tenth Schedule of the Indian Constitution, exists in India to prevent legislators from changing parties, in many cases, legislators have claimed immunity from disqualifications since two-thirds of the elected members made the switch. Experts say these claims exploit a flawed legal interpretation of paragraph four of the law that opens space for political mergers.

Under the paragraph, a valid merger requires the original political party to merge first, with at least two-thirds of its legislative party consenting. This does not attract anti-defection disqualifications.

However, the Bombay High Court (Goa Bench) in February 2022 read the second clause (two-thirds MLAs switch) separately from the requirement of original party mergers. A year later, in a separate hearing on the Shiv Sena split, the Supreme Court made a different observation, saying that "to read the term 'political party' as 'legislature party' would be contrary to the plain language of the Tenth Schedule".

Despite the SC clarification, the switches are still happening, which Mayuri Gupta, senior research fellow at the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, said is "an opportunity to engineer defections". "It has come to a point where parties are being torn apart," she added.

The decision to accept or reject the mergers, based on the law, rests with the Speaker of the House. The moves by Shiv Sena (UBT) and Aam Aadmi Party MPs have been accepted, while the decision on TMC MPs has been deferred. "If a proper objective decision is taken on the basis of law, all these people would be disqualified," said P.D.T. Achary, former secretary-general of the Lok Sabha.

The original parties are contesting these switches: the TMC has challenged the merger case in the SC, while the AAP and the Shiv Sena (UBT) are also looking for legal remedies.

Murky political waters

While the two-thirds merger clause has been used in all national-level cases for the analysis period, the picture is mixed at the assembly level. Take the biggest switch in Nagaland: 25 MLAs from the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) merged with the Naga People's Front (NPF). At the same time, seven MLAs from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), who had earlier merged with NDPP, also joined the NPF. This does not trigger the anti-defection law due to a clear merger, even if it has left the state without a major opposition party. Interestingly, both merged parties were NDA allies at the national level despite being on opposite sides pre-merger.

The next biggest switch is from Congress to the BJP. Out of 15 MLAs who switched, eight from Goa again used the two-thirds merger exemption. Four MLAs from Gujarat and two from Himachal Pradesh either resigned or were disqualified. They later won by-elections on BJP tickets. One Congress MLA from Madhya Pradesh, Nirmla Sapre, defected to the BJP, later denied she had defected, and has since been the subject of a Congress disqualification petition in the state high court.

Congress has also gained from lawmaker switches. The third biggest switch was when nine Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLAs joined the Congress in Karnataka, triggering the question of disqualification. The Congress-appointed Telangana speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar rejected the disqualification petitions, signalling that the party in power generally gains from the anti-defection loopholes. In September 2026, however, both the Telangana High Court and the Supreme Court disqualified one MLA, Danam Nagender, noting he had contested Lok Sabha polls on a Congress ticket, while continuing to hold his BRS assembly seat. The status of others is under contest.

Fix the system

For now, the NDA's position has improved in both houses (319 out of 543 in Lok Sabha and 148 out of 245 in Rajya Sabha). The ruling alliance, however, still falls short of the two-thirds majority mark needed (362 in Lok Sabha and 164 in Rajya Sabha) to pass constitutional amendments.

According to Achary, the current anti-defection law is a "product of many compromises", and India needs stricter rules. "There should be an addition of a clause saying that anybody changing parties should have to resign first before re-contesting elections, regardless of a merger," he said.