New Delhi, Oct 9 - Bihar is gearing up for its state assembly elections on Nov 6 and 11, but a new wave of party‑switching has started to dominate the headlines. Political leaders are resigning from the Assembly, hoping to secure safer seats or climb higher in a different party.
Party‑hopping among top politicians
Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MLA Bharat Bind—who switched to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) earlier this year—has now resigned from the Bihar Assembly. Bind won the Bhabua seat in 2020 with a margin of over 10,000 votes, beating BJP’s Rinki Rani Pandey. He had contested the same seat in 2015 as a Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate, finishing third behind the BJP and Janata Dal‑United (JD‑U).
Congress MLA Murari Prasad Gautam of the Chenari seat also stepped down. He defeated JD‑U’s Lalan Paswan by 18,000 votes in 2020. Paswan had won the seat in 2015 as a Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) candidate.
The trend isn’t limited to a few names. Former Union Minister Nagmani Kushwaha has founded or joined nearly a dozen parties in the past 23 years. His Dalit‑oriented group, the RLSP, once secured a national ministerial post. Meanwhile, Upendra Kushwaha, another former union minister with a decade of political shifts, has also bounced between parties about half a dozen times. Even Samrat Choudhary, now Bihar’s Deputy Chief Minister, has led major parties before landing in the BJP.
JD‑U’s chief, Nitish Kumar, is called “paltu ram” in local slang due to his policy of changing alliances. The late Ram Vilas Paswan earned the nickname “political weathercock” for his habit of allying with the winners before the results were announced. Jitan Ram Manjhi, another former chief minister, has also moved between parties over the last ten years.
A long‑standing problem
Party hopping is by no means a new phenomenon. In the late 1960s, independent legislators from several states flipped sides so often that the Y.B. Chavan Committee was asked to investigate. Over 540 defections were recorded between the first and fourth general elections (1951‑1967). The “horse‑trading” culture has usually been driven by the promise of material gain or coveted offices.
India tried to curb the practice. The Constitution (Thirty‑second Amendment) Bill (1973) and the Constitution (Forty‑eighth Amendment) Bill (1979) were offered and then withdrawn, sparking opposition from both sides of parliament. It wasn’t until the Constitution (Fifty‑second Amendment) Bill (1984) that the first anti‑defection law came into force in January 1985. That law bars legislators from changing parties mid‑term, though it still allows them to join a party at will—an essential freedom in a democracy.
The phrase “Aya Ram, Gaya Ram” (he comes, he goes) captures the mood of these political jugglers. In Haryana, Bhajan Lal earned a reputation as a master of horse‑trading, while Hira Nand Arya and Gaya Lal still sign names on the public record for their multiple jumps. Even outside India, Brits and Australians have seen party‑hoppers in their parliaments.
With the Bihar elections just weeks away, the outpour of resignations and the historic patterns of party‑switching add another layer of intrigue to an already heated campaign. The state’s voters will be watching closely to see if these political floats manage to land in the firm ground of the next Assembly.
Source: ianslive
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