As LS elections draw close, deeper scrutiny of anti-defection law is needed

Should the anti-defection law in India exist only to prevent democratically elected governments from being toppled?

Last week, Churchill Alemao (pictured), former Goa chief minister, met Praful Patel, lieutenant of the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), resigned from the Trinamool Congress (TMC), and is reportedly in talks to (re) join the NCP. Many see his career as one reason why India’s anti-defection law must be amended. To say Alemao is a peripatetic politician might be an understatement. He was first elected a member of legislative Assembly (MLA) on the Congress ticket in 1989. Three months later, possibly because he was left out of the Cabinet, Alemao rebelled and brought down the Pratapsingh Rane government. He