SATURDAY, APRIL 27, 2024
It is now turning out to be almost a regular occurrence for MLAs to quit the party they have been elected from and join another just before the end of the Legislative Assembly term. We saw it happening in Goa in late 2016 when there were just months to go before the 2017 polls. At around the same time the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party that was a partner with the Bharatiya Janata Party in government withdrew support and decided to contest the 2017 elections on its own. Of course, once the elections were held and the results declared, the BJP and the MGP teamed up once again to form the government. What occurred later – the falling out between the two parties – has been well documented.
This practice of quitting the party before the polls has now been seen in other States too. With months to go for the elections in West Bengal, there has been an exodus of MLAs from the Trinamool Congress who has resigned from the party citing various reasons, mainly that they were suffocating in the TMC. Some have joined the BJP and there could be more who will quit in the weeks ahead. Further south of West Bengal there has been an almost similar incident in Puducherry where MLAs quit the Congress and here succeeded in bringing down the government and with just weeks to elections there are no new claimants to the chief minister’s chair, a situation that has led to the recommendation of imposition of President’s Rule in the State.
Governments in other States have been brought down during their terms and new governments formed via defections with the politicians contesting the by-elections necessitated by their resignations. But it is rare for a government to collapse just months before an election due to resignations. In such a situation, no party or coalition of parties would dare to form a government in a State or Union Territory, as is the case of Puducherry, with just two months to prove itself. The option is either carry on through with a lame-duck weakened government or impose President’s Rule.
This development is going to affect the election in Puducherry. The Congress in the Union Territory will now face the electorate severely weakened. The message that has gone to the electorate of Puducherry is that Congress cannot keep its flock together. It is a blow to the party that has been losing State after State across the country. But, when one looks at the occurrence dispassionately, is it that the parties – whether Trinamool or Congress – are unable to hold on to their MLAs or is it that these members of the legislative assembly spy better prospects on the other side? The latter appears to be more likely as the resignations appear to be led by the sole aim of returning to the Assembly in a stronger formation.
This is an abuse of democracy by the MLAs who wait until such time that they do not have much to lose by way of disqualification due to defection to quit. Had they quit the party and the Assembly membership earlier in the term they would have had to face the electorate again in a by-election, but waiting till less than six months before an election is due allows them to circumvent this and contest the general election. Technically, there is no defection which calls for making the anti-defection law more stringent. Loopholes in the existing laws have been exploited by unscrupulous MLAs across the country. Defections are not new in India, but that is no reason to condone the change of parties by the politicians. It has to be stopped.
