More than a hundred sitting Members of Parliament (MPs) and Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs) switched their political parties after winning elections between 2022 and 2026, according to a new report published by the election watchdog Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).
ADR compiled its findings from candidate election affidavits, categorising the movements based on the specific legal mechanisms used by lawmakers to switch political alignments.
These include individual defection, where a legislator voluntarily leaves one party and joins another without resigning from the House; a formal party merger; resignation followed by a by-election; and disqualification under the Tenth Schedule followed by joining another party and winning the seat again in a by-election. The study found party switches across 17 States and Union Territories. Nagaland recorded the highest number, with 32 MPs/MLAs, accounting for 29% of all the cases analysed. Among the parties from which the legislators moved, Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) recorded the highest number of exits at 25 (23%). It was followed by the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) with 20 (18%) and the Indian National Congress (INC) with 19 (17%). The BJP received 29, while the Nationalist Citizens Party of India received 20. ADR report said NPF, BJP and the Nationalist Citizens Party of India together accounted for 81 of the 111 legislators who joined other political parties, or 73% of the total.
