If Bhagirath Prasad was running for elections in Kenya, he would not have been able to make the audacious switch that he did over the weekend.
On Saturday evening, the Indian National Congress announced his name as its candidate in Madhya Pradesh's Bhind constituency. Sunday morning, Prasad sprang a surprise. The former Indian Administrative Service officer confirmed that he would indeed be contesting elections from Bhind, but not as a nominee of the Congress, the party of which he has been a member since 2009. Instead, he would fight on behalf of the Bharatiya Janata Party, the party that he had been fighting all along.
Such last-minute switching could not have happened in Kenya. Under Kenyan law, unless you have been a member of a political party for at least two months before elections, you cannot contest as its candidate. To ensure this, parties need to submit their membership rolls to the Registrar of Political Parties two months before the polls. Earlier, an even more stringent version of the law made it incumbent upon Kenyan politicians wishing to contest on a party ticket to be listed on its rolls at least three months before the rolls were submitted, which translated into a minimum five months membership rule for all candidates.
In India, such strictures would incapacitate a sizeable number of politicians. While Prasad might be exceptional in having jumped ship despite getting a ticket, most others are switching because they were denied tickets for their preferred constituencies.
Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s niece Karuna Shukla quit the BJP after 32 years and has been nominated as the Congress candidate from Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh.
In Bihar, which appears to be in the grip of party-hopping fever, Bhagwan Singh Kushwaha, a Janata Dal (United) leader and former minister in Nitish Kumar’s government, joined the rival Rashtriya Janata Dal on Thursday and got a ticket the same day.
The RJD, meanwhile, is facing an exodus of its own. Lalu Prasad Yadav’s key aide, Ramkirpal Yadav, left the party after his constituency was handed over to Lalu’s daughter Misa. He announced his decision to contest against Misa, and is rumoured to be in talks with the BJP for a ticket.
Much party-hopping is also taking place in erstwhile Andhra Pradesh, where six MLAs and two MPs of Vishakapatnam have changed party loyalties.
Nigerian politician Labaran Maku has compared party-hoppers to Fulani nomads, the cattle herdsmen who migrate in search for better grazing grounds. In Malaysia, party-hoppers are called frogs. In 2012, the country’s Penang province enacted a law akin to India’s anti-defection law to prevent politicians from hopping not just post-elections, but also weeks before the elections.
These examples are exceptions. Laws that curb party-hopping on the eve of elections are rare. More common are anti-defection laws that prevent elected representatives from floor-crossing, or switching parties after the election results are announced. Some countries that have anti-defection laws are Belize, Namibia, Nepal, Nigeria, Seychelles, Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe.
Most of these countries are former colonies that adopted western-style democracy after independence. Political scholars often derisively distinguish them from the “mature democracies” of the west. Never mind that the other country, apart from Kenya and Malaysia, to have a law to regulate pre-election opportunism is the United States of America.
Last year, when Michael R. Bloomberg ran for re-election as the mayor of New York, not as an independent but as a candidate of the Republican Party, he had to seek permission from a Republican committee, under the Wilson-Pakula law passed in 1947, which barred candidates from running for primaries unless they had “enrolled in the party before the previous general election or were granted permission by party leaders”.
The US has its fair share of political turncoats. While they do well as speakers at party conventions, they are not rewarded by voters. "They find themselves not trusted by the people they're embracing and condemned by the people they're leaving," Hal Bass, a political scientist told journalists from the NPR.
No such luck in India, where voters are generally more forgiving, as long as the candidate belongs to their community. While there are no clear data for the election fortunes of turncoats in India, there are data for another Asian country, the Philippines, and they shows that defectors do rather well.
On Saturday evening, the Indian National Congress announced his name as its candidate in Madhya Pradesh's Bhind constituency. Sunday morning, Prasad sprang a surprise. The former Indian Administrative Service officer confirmed that he would indeed be contesting elections from Bhind, but not as a nominee of the Congress, the party of which he has been a member since 2009. Instead, he would fight on behalf of the Bharatiya Janata Party, the party that he had been fighting all along.
Such last-minute switching could not have happened in Kenya. Under Kenyan law, unless you have been a member of a political party for at least two months before elections, you cannot contest as its candidate. To ensure this, parties need to submit their membership rolls to the Registrar of Political Parties two months before the polls. Earlier, an even more stringent version of the law made it incumbent upon Kenyan politicians wishing to contest on a party ticket to be listed on its rolls at least three months before the rolls were submitted, which translated into a minimum five months membership rule for all candidates.
In India, such strictures would incapacitate a sizeable number of politicians. While Prasad might be exceptional in having jumped ship despite getting a ticket, most others are switching because they were denied tickets for their preferred constituencies.
Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s niece Karuna Shukla quit the BJP after 32 years and has been nominated as the Congress candidate from Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh.
In Bihar, which appears to be in the grip of party-hopping fever, Bhagwan Singh Kushwaha, a Janata Dal (United) leader and former minister in Nitish Kumar’s government, joined the rival Rashtriya Janata Dal on Thursday and got a ticket the same day.
The RJD, meanwhile, is facing an exodus of its own. Lalu Prasad Yadav’s key aide, Ramkirpal Yadav, left the party after his constituency was handed over to Lalu’s daughter Misa. He announced his decision to contest against Misa, and is rumoured to be in talks with the BJP for a ticket.
Much party-hopping is also taking place in erstwhile Andhra Pradesh, where six MLAs and two MPs of Vishakapatnam have changed party loyalties.
Nigerian politician Labaran Maku has compared party-hoppers to Fulani nomads, the cattle herdsmen who migrate in search for better grazing grounds. In Malaysia, party-hoppers are called frogs. In 2012, the country’s Penang province enacted a law akin to India’s anti-defection law to prevent politicians from hopping not just post-elections, but also weeks before the elections.
These examples are exceptions. Laws that curb party-hopping on the eve of elections are rare. More common are anti-defection laws that prevent elected representatives from floor-crossing, or switching parties after the election results are announced. Some countries that have anti-defection laws are Belize, Namibia, Nepal, Nigeria, Seychelles, Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe.
Most of these countries are former colonies that adopted western-style democracy after independence. Political scholars often derisively distinguish them from the “mature democracies” of the west. Never mind that the other country, apart from Kenya and Malaysia, to have a law to regulate pre-election opportunism is the United States of America.
Last year, when Michael R. Bloomberg ran for re-election as the mayor of New York, not as an independent but as a candidate of the Republican Party, he had to seek permission from a Republican committee, under the Wilson-Pakula law passed in 1947, which barred candidates from running for primaries unless they had “enrolled in the party before the previous general election or were granted permission by party leaders”.
The US has its fair share of political turncoats. While they do well as speakers at party conventions, they are not rewarded by voters. "They find themselves not trusted by the people they're embracing and condemned by the people they're leaving," Hal Bass, a political scientist told journalists from the NPR.
No such luck in India, where voters are generally more forgiving, as long as the candidate belongs to their community. While there are no clear data for the election fortunes of turncoats in India, there are data for another Asian country, the Philippines, and they shows that defectors do rather well.
Limited-time offer: Big stories, small price. Keep independent media alive. Become a Scroll member today!
Our journalism is for everyone. But you can get special privileges by buying an annual Scroll Membership. Sign up today!