Legislators who change party affiliations must seek re-election

A defection is a betrayal of the mandate. Any shift in political affiliation would mean the right to represent the mandate is lost. Political morality demands that he resign his seat and seek re-election.

Karnataka heats up after SC orders status quo on rebel MLAs, Kumaraswamy seeks trust vote — Whatever be the reason, the legislator is duty-bound to explain his defection to the electorate; the first step towards that is to quit the seat. (PTI Photo)

The recent defections of Congress legislators in Goa and Telangana to the BJP and the TRS respectively and four TDP MPs in the Rajya Sabha joining the BJP seem to pass the anti-defection law test. In all the three cases, the rebels had the required numbers — two-third members of the legislature party — to escape disqualification. One of the MLAs who joined the BJP in Goa had been elected on a Congress ticket defeating the BJP nominee only two months earlier. It’s not been even a year since elections were held in Telangana and almost all the defectors had defeated TRS candidates. It takes an instrumentalist reading of the law to justify these defections as a normal political activity. The fact is these are a violation of political and constitutional morality.