NEW DELHI, SEPT 26 — Mid-term political switches accounted for 111 elected representatives shifting party affiliations across national and state legislative bodies since 2022, an Association for Democratic Reforms report declared.
The findings show that 78 state assembly members joined 33 parliamentary representatives in making post-election transitions during this period. Nagaland and West Bengal led the regional tally, accounting for 32 and 20 defections respectively.
Outlining party-wise departures, the analysis stated that the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party with 25 members, the Trinamool Congress with 20, and the Congress with 19 made up 64 of the total 111 instances. Other major parties reporting exits included the Bharat Rashtra Samithi with nine, alongside the Aam Aadmi Party and Nationalist Congress Party with seven each.
On the receiving side, the Naga People’s Front, the Bharatiya Janata Party, and the Nationalist Citizens Party of India jointly accounted for 81 incoming lawmakers, consolidating the majority of post-election transfers.
Electoral reform analysts affirmed that recurring floor-crossing alters mandate outcomes, urging structural revisions to disqualification mechanisms to preserve voter intent.
