Before the Lok Sabha polls including bypolls are about to be announced by the Election Commission of India (ECI), senior political leaders are on their way to change their ideological symbol to secure their politics.

Politics in Gujarat can be considered the epicentre for such events, since the state has the most number of Congress leaders changing sides in the last few decades. Starting from Saurashtra, the trend of joining BJP now has now spread all over Gujarat, where a congressman from Kutch border- Pradhyumansinh Jadeja or from Kaprada, Jitu Chaudhary, has joined BJP in the last assembly term.

 Dr Parthivrajsinh Kathvadiya, spokesperson of Gujarat Congress, said, “The leaders who left Congress are leaders elected and nominated from Congress, a party which gave them identity. They have earned well, including fame, and now they change their ideology to gain more.”

“Dedicated party workers and supporters are with congress and they haven’t joined BJP with these leaders till date. Naran Rathva, Kunvarji Bavliya, and Balwantsinh Rajput are such leaders who have achieved so many things in Congress and then they joined BJP. But ultimately, the support of people and dedicated Congress workers is there and will always remain with the party,” added Kathvadiya.

The game of changing parties in India started in 1960-70 in Haryana. Gradually that has spread across the country and after 2014, there has been a boom in such incidents.

According to the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), more than 1,000 leaders at the MP and MLA levels were involved in the reshuffle during 2014-21. In this seven-year period, 399 leaders at the MLA-MP level have left the Congress.  The number of leaders who quit BSP is around 170. From the year 2021 to 2023, around 200 leaders have joined the BJP at the level of MLAs and MPs.

In these two years, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, and Maharashtra have seen the most turncoats. In Gujarat, Since 2012, Congress leaders leaving the party and joining BJP has been going on continuously. Around 70 big Congress leaders have joined BJP since 2012 in Gujarat. In which MLAs, MPs and office bearers of the Congress organisation have also joined the BJP.

Explaining the impact of leaders changing the party on voters, Dr Jagannatham Begari, assistant professor of Political Science at Central University of Gujarat (CUG) said that situations like these are not good for democracy. 

It is visible that political ethics are disappearing from politics. Political leaders joining another party results in people losing interest in politics, including youth. They may start to hate politics due to such incidents, he added.

“When it comes to people, they support parties because leaders come and go,” said Begari.

Though 10 MLAs including leader of Opposition have quit congress in 2017, congress have successfully secured 77 seats since then.  

Kartikey Bhatt, professor of Economics, said, “Congress has been the second choice of people in Gujarat for many years. Congress leaders who are joining BJP are well aware that Congress is far away from power so they think it better to join BJP to have power.”

“And for people, they don’t vote for leaders, they are used to voting for Party (Congress) and there is no change in vote share of Congress even though numbers of leaders have switched away,” added Bhatt.

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