As per an Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) report, 443 MLAs and MPs had quit their parties and re-contested on their host party’s ticket between 2016 and 2020. If one includes those who did not re-contest, the figure will be higher. In Goa, 60 per cent of the MLAs changed parties. Punjab MLA Balvinder Singh Laddi switched parties four times in two months. Within days after joining TMC, Sushmita Dev was made a Rajya Sabha member. The BJP rewarded 10 of 16 Congress defectors in Karnataka with ministerships. A dozen Congress-NCP defectors were in the first list of BJP candidates in Maharashtra polls — another sign of the bargain for power and quid pro quo. In Maharashtra, where hopes are fading for a BJP return, many BJP leaders have joined the Shiv Sena. Hours after Amit Shah’s visit in February last year, seven BJP councillors joined the Sena and six others later. West Bengal had a spate of defections from the Trinamool Congress to the BJP, including four ministers and 13 MLAs. Most of them scurried back after Mamata Banerjee retained power.

For today’s politicians, power is the essence of life. Ideology, political commitment and loyalty are variables. The party system that existed until a decade back is under challenge. It is more like business executives seeking better career options. It has become purely transactional. Karnataka deputy speaker Anand Mamani has put the post-ideology politician’s mindset in black and white. He threatened to resign if he is not made a minister. Another BJP MLA warned that unless he was given the chairmanship of a better board or corporation, he will quit. Last October, a BJP minister and his MLA son in Uttarakhand joined the Congress because the son was denied a ticket.

The crisis of confidence is so acute that the AAP got legal affidavits of loyalty signed by all its Goa candidates and photographed in the presence of party chief Arvind Kejriwal. The Congress took all its 37 Goa candidates for a loyalty oath “in the name of God” at a temple, church and mosque and later got a signed legal affidavit. A similar oath was administered in Manipur. Apparently, all this is intended to thwart post-poll defections. Defection-induced regime changes happened in Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, MP, Assam and Tripura.

There have been two other concomitant developments. The first is the narrowing of distinction between political parties — in working style, personalised party control and political postures. The second is the ideological and policy compromises to suit the imperatives of power. Watch how Uddhav Thackeray has so well diluted Shiv Sena’s aggressive Hindutva to accommodate his secular allies like Sharad Pawar. Amarinder Singh dumped secularism days after meeting Amit Shah. Kejriwal has been more ardently pandering to deshbhakti and majoritarian religiosity than Thackeray.

The other undercurrent that went unnoticed was the introduction of tele-surveys to decide CM nominees. The AAP in Punjab was the first to experiment with it. The party contacted over 21.59 lakh people on a dedicated mobile number. Respondents were asked to record their voices and send a text message or WhatsApp the name of their candidate. The survey found Bhagwant Singh Mann enjoyed the highest amount of support and everyone in AAP accepted it. This prompted the Congress to conduct its own tele-survey through interactive voice response calls. This was to make it transparent. Apart from contacting 1.5 crore people from the general public, the party’s coordinators sought the views of all Congress MPs, MLAs and block, district and PCC leaders. The outcome showed Charanjit Singh Channi enjoyed more support. The findings were so compelling that Navjot Singh Siddhu also accepted them.

The tele-survey may not be totally foolproof. But it certainly marks a departure from the system of Delhi bosses imposing their favourites on the elected MLAs. For the first time, party ranks have forced the high command to adopt a democratic procedure. This comes in the backdrop of a decade of sharp decline in internal democracy across political parties. Organisational bodies were made dormant. Internal discussions and seeking MLAs’ preferences were seen as signs of “weak” leadership. In Uttarakhand, CMs were changed three times in four months. Tirath Singh Rawat was CM for just 116 days. In September, Vijay Rupani was suddenly removed as Gujarat CM and was replaced by a junior loyalist, much to the chagrin of deputy CM Nitin Patel. Even the Karnataka strong man B S Yediyurappa was not spared.

The urge to be assertive was so strong that even the Rahul-Priyanka team began replacing the Congress CMs. In September, it was Amarinder Singh. The Chhattisgarh CM had to make three Delhi visits with his MLAs to escape the axe. Even the fairly stable Rajasthan CM was on the hit list. Clearly, democratic procedures like tele-survey are unlikely to gain traction.