Maharashtra political crisis spotlights defection issue

The ongoing political crisis in Maharashtra has again brought into focus the issue of defection. However, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray perhaps cannot do much as the rebel party leader Eknath Shinde - leading the pack of defectors, appears to have the support of nearly two-thirds of the total MLAs and can escape action under the 1985 anti-defection law.

The scenario unfolding in Maharashtra bears some resemblance to rebellions in two Congress-ruled states — Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan — in 2020 when Jyotiraditya Scindia and Sachin Pilot rose against their respective chief ministers.

While Kamal Nath lost power in Madhya Pradesh as Scindia walked out of Congress with nearly two dozen supporting MLAs, Ashok Gehlot managed to retain the Chair as Pilot did not press that hard. Having already burnt their fingers in the MP episode, Congress' top leadership immediately got into damage control mode in Rajasthan.

Read | Sena rebels claim majority; Uddhav offers to resign

The situation in the desert state was salvaged even as Pilot, the then deputy CM in the Gehlot government, with 18 MLAs, had moved to a hotel in BJP-ruled Haryana then. Congress had accused Union minister Gajendra Shekhawat of the BJP of trying to topple the Gehlot government in Rajasthan.

In Madhya Pradesh, Congress could not save its government as MLAs loyal to Scindia resigned after him, bringing the Nath government into the minority. Shivraj Singh Chouhan returned to power within two and a half years of losing the polls in 2018.

Ironically, Congress has sent Kamal Nath to troubleshoot the crisis in the MVA government in Maharashtra.

The anti-defection law that was brought into force in 1985 to check the 'Aya Ram Gaya Ram' politics has failed multiple times to act as a powerful deterrent, more so after the strategy of 'operation lotus', fine-tuned by the BJP under which, MLAs of other parties resign and then come back to Assembly winning the next election from the other side.

Read | MVA an 'unnatural alliance', Sena must quit it: Shinde

But it wasn't 'operation lotus' that was carried out in all cases. There have been multiple instances of a party managing two-thirds defections from the rival parties.

The Maharashtra episode is somewhat akin to the Goa episode of 2019 when 10 of the 15 Congress MLAs merged their legislature party with the BJP. In 2020, 12 of 18 Congress MLAs resigned in Telangana and joined TRS.

The most massive movement was reported in Arunachal Pradesh in 2016 when none other than the chief minister, Pema Khandu, with 43 of 44 Congress MLAs, deserted the parent party and joined the People's Party of Arunachal and from there, the BJP finally.

In 2016, six of the nine Congress MLAs deserted the party and joined Trinamool Congress in Tripura. Months later, all of them joined the BJP. Both the times, the affected parties raised the allegations of horse-trading, an issue which has frequently found echo.

In November 2018, the Supreme Court flagged the growing concern of horse-trading in politics while hearing a matter related to the Karnataka Assembly.

During deliberation of state legislatures with Lok Sabha, Speaker Om Birla at the All India Presiding Officers Conference (AIPOC) in December 2019 in Dehradun, multiple states underlined the need to further strengthen the 10th schedule that lays down the process by which legislators may be disqualified by the presiding officer based on a petition by any member of the House.

The law had made it mandatory for having at least two-thirds of members of a party to be in favour of a 'merger' in another party or the formation of a separate group from the parent body.