As many as 170 MLAs left the Congress to join other parties during the elections held between 2016 and 2020, while only 18 BJP legislators switched parties to contest the polls in this period. According to a report by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), between 2016 and 2020, 182 of the 405 re-contesting MLAs, who switched political parties, joined the BJP. Thirty-eight others joined the Congress and 25 the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS).

Five Lok Sabha members left the BJP to join other parties during the 2019 Lok Sabha polls while seven Rajya Sabha members left the Congress to contest elections between 2016 and 2020 as candidates of other parties, the report said.

The Congress has been the biggest loser of political defection as 170 of its MLAs left the party to join other parties during the elections held between 2016 and 2020.

“It is to be noted that the recent fall of Governments in Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Goa, Arunachal Pradesh and Karnataka State Assemblies were due to defections of their MLAs,” the report said.

It said between 2016 and 2020, 10 of the 16 re-contesting Rajya Sabha members who switched political parties joined the BJP and five of the 12 Lok Sabha members who changed parties joined the Congress during the 2019 LS polls.

For the report, the National Election Watch and the ADR have analysed the self-sworn affidavits of 433 MPs and MLAs, who changed parties and re-contested elections held in the last five years.