NEW DELHI: At least 111 sitting MPs and MLAs changed political parties after being elected between 2022 and 2026, according to an analysis by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch (NEW). The report, released on September 24, covers elections and by-elections held during the period and includes 26 Lok Sabha MPs, seven Rajya Sabha MPs and 78 MLAs. The cases span 17 states and Union Territories, with Nagaland recording the highest number at 32, followed by West Bengal with 20, Telangana with nine, and Goa and Punjab with eight each. Maharashtra and Meghalaya recorded six cases each, Manipur five, Arunachal Pradesh and Gujarat four each, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan two each, while Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Sikkim, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi recorded one each.
Of the 111 lawmakers, 32 joined the Naga People's Front (NPF), accounting for 29 per cent of the total. The BJP received 29, or 26 per cent, followed by the Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI) with 20, or 18 per cent. The Congress received nine lawmakers, or 8 per cent, while Shiv Sena received eight, or 7 per cent. NPP received six, or 5 per cent, and the People's Party of Arunachal (PPA) received four, or 4 per cent. Together, NPF, BJP and NCPI accounted for 81 of the 111 lawmakers, or 73 per cent. The NPF's figure was largely linked to the political realignment involving the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) and NPF in Nagaland. ADR classifies party mergers separately from individual defections, making the distinction important when reading the overall figures.
Of the 29 lawmakers listed as having joined the BJP, seven were Rajya Sabha MPs and 22 were MLAs. No Lok Sabha MP in the ADR dataset moved to the BJP. The seven Rajya Sabha MPs were originally elected from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP): Swati Maliwal, Ashok Mittal, Harbhajan Singh, Raghav Chadha, Sandeep Kumar Pathak, Vikramjit Singh Sahney and Rajinder Gupta. The seven AAP MPs subsequently joined the BJP in April 2026. Among the MLAs were eight Congress legislators from Goa, four Congress legislators from Gujarat and two from Himachal Pradesh. The report also lists five JD(U) MLAs from Manipur as having moved to the BJP. Other BJP entrants included Samajwadi Party MLA Manoj Kumar Pandey from Uttar Pradesh, Congress MLA Nirmala Sapre from Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka MLA G Janardhan Reddy, whose Kalyana Rajya Pragathi Paksha (KRPP) merged with the BJP, according to the ADR analysis. Four Gujarat Congress MLAs, CJ Chavda, Arjun Modhwadia, Arvind Ladani and Chirag Patel, resigned, joined the BJP and subsequently contested by-elections.
Nagaland recorded 32 cases, all involving MLAs. The cases were largely linked to the NDPP-NPF realignment, with 25 representatives originally elected from the NDPP among those who changed parties and 32 lawmakers joining the NPF. West Bengal recorded 20 cases, all involving Lok Sabha MPs. All 20 were originally elected on AITC tickets and subsequently moved to the NCPI, according to the analysis. The MPs have claimed a merger with the NCPI, with the matter pending before Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla. Telangana recorded nine cases, all involving MLAs originally elected from the BRS, while Congress emerged as the principal recipient. Goa recorded eight cases involving Congress MLAs who moved to the BJP. Punjab also recorded eight cases, including six Rajya Sabha members and two MLAs. Maharashtra recorded six cases, all involving Lok Sabha MPs elected from Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) who subsequently moved to Shiv Sena led by Eknath Shinde. Meghalaya recorded six MLA cases, while Manipur recorded five.
Among the parties from which lawmakers moved, NDPP recorded the highest number of exits, with 25, or 23 per cent of the total. AITC followed with 20, or 18 per cent, while Congress accounted for 19, or 17 per cent. BRS recorded nine exits, or 8 per cent. AAP and NCP each accounted for seven, or 6 per cent, while Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) accounted for six, or 5 per cent. JD(U) recorded five, or 5 per cent, and NPP four, or 4 per cent. Together, NDPP, AITC and Congress accounted for 64 of the 111 lawmakers who changed parties, or 58 per cent.
ADR's analysis divides the 111 cases into four categories based on how the change took place. The first covers individual switches or defections, where a legislator voluntarily leaves one party and joins another without resigning from the House. The second covers party mergers, where the original party or a substantial section of its legislative wing formally merges with another party, such as the NDPP-NPF case in Nagaland. The third covers resignation followed by a by-election, where a legislator resigns from the Assembly or Parliament, joins another party and subsequently contests and wins a by-election. The fourth covers disqualification followed by a by-election, where a member is disqualified under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, later joins another party and wins the seat again through a by-election.
ADR also noted that recent defections had been associated with the fall of governments in some State Assemblies.
ADR and NEW said they made every effort to identify and include all relevant cases but cautioned that the list may not be exhaustive because of the lack of systematically maintained and readily accessible official data on lawmakers changing political parties. Other relevant cases may therefore not have been included. The previous ADR report on MPs and MLAs who changed parties was released on September 9, 2021, and covered the period from 2014 to 2021.
