Politics of defection A case Study of Telangana State

Abstract

Political defection or shifting of party loyalty by legislators for varied reasons is a problem, which is being faced by many parliamentary democracies of the world today. Political defections betray the mandate of the electorate, the fundamentals of a party system and lead to political instability. That being so, different countries have either evolved conventions or framed laws and rules to deal with political defections. The Indian polity has also had to contend with the menace of political defections time and again, bringing in its trail political instability, both at the centre and in the states, on several occasions. It was against this backdrop that the anti-defection law was inserted in the Tenth scheduled to the Constitution of India by the 52nd Amendment Act in 1985 by the then Prime Minister Shri Rajiv Gandhi. The 52nd Amendment act contains punitive measures against a member who defects from one party to another after elections, thereby intends to bring stability to our Parliamentary democracy and subsequently it was amended by the Constitution (Ninety-First Amendment) Act, 2003 to make it more effective. newlineAfter analysing the history of defections in the last 34 years of working of anti-defection law in India revealed that the law succeeded to a limited extent to curb habitual defectors and but has been ineffective in curbing menace of political defection which has assumed the alarming proportion in several state legislatures. Recent defections in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Manipur, Nagaland, Tamil Nadu and Uttarakhand etc, raises serious question about the relevance of the Anti-defection Law, which failed to achieve its desired objective to curb defection. Political party defection is a phenomenon that requires and deserves a scientific and objective investigation, not only to point out the main reasons for it but also to ascertain the possible newlineiii newlineimplications it could have on the sustenance of democracy. There have been many studies on political defection in India,