As many as 111 MPs and MLAs changed their parties after winning elections to Parliament or state assemblies between 2022 and 2026, with the highest number of such switches recorded in Nagaland and West Bengal, according to an analysis by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch.
ADR said the cases covered individual defections, party mergers, resignations followed by bypoll victories and disqualification followed by winning a seat in a bypoll.
Telangana was next with nine cases, all involving MLAs. The nine were legislators elected from the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), while the Congress emerged as the principal recipient of lawmakers in the state. Goa recorded eight cases, with Congress MLAs moving to the BJP, while Punjab also accounted for eight cases, including six Rajya Sabha members and two MLAs. The BRS accounted for nine, AAP and NCP seven each, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) six, JD(U) five and NPP four.
West Bengal recorded 20 cases, all involving Lok Sabha members. All 20 were originally elected on All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) tickets and subsequently moved to the Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI), according to the analysis. At the party level, the NDPP recorded the highest number of exits at 25, followed by the AITC with 20 and the Congress with 19. Together, NDPP, AITC and Congress accounted for 64 of the 111 cases, or 58 per cent.
ADR said the cases covered individual defections, party mergers, resignations followed by bypoll victories and disqualification followed by winning a seat in a bypoll.
