45% of MLAs who switched parties between 2016 and 2020 joined BJP: Report

About 45 per cent of re-contesting MLAs (182 of 405) who switched political parties between 2016 and 2020 joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), according to a report by poll rights group Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR). This was followed by 38 who joined the Congress and 25 who joined the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS).

As many as 170 MLAs deserted the Congress during the elections held between 2016 and 2020, while only 18 BJP legislators switched parties to contest the polls, it said. Five Lok Sabha MPs quit the BJP to join other parties during the 2019 Lok Sabha polls while seven Rajya Sabha MPs left the Congress to contest elections on another party's ticket in the same period.

"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," the report said.

Ten of the 16 re-contesting Rajya Sabha MPs who switched political parties joined the BJP and five of the 12 Lok Sabha MPs who changed parties joined the Congress during the 2019  parliamentary polls.