Defection as merger: On politics, the wave of defections

There is something deeply troubling about the wave of defections sweeping India’s elected representatives, Members of Parliament chief among them. In the latest episode, six Shiv Sena (UBT) MPs are seeking to join the Eknath Shinde faction of the Sena, which emerged after an earlier split in the parent party. This group constitutes exactly two-thirds of the party’s Lok Sabha strength, giving them the escape route that their crossover will constitute a merger under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution , or the anti-defection law . Under the Tenth Schedule, a member can be disqualified if they voluntarily resign from their party or defy a party whip during a division of votes in the House. In 2003, the law was strengthened by an amendment that removed the earlier “split” provision — which had allowed one-third of a party’s members to defect without penalty — and retained only the “merger” exception, under which disqualification does not apply if two-thirds of a party’s legislators agree to merge with another party. Engineered splits are now dressed up as mergers, letting groups defect without inviting disqualification. The legal validity of such claims is itself contested, as the Supreme Court of India has, in a past judgment, made clear that a merger cannot be of the legislature party alone, and must involve the parent party as well.