At least 111 sitting MPs and MLAs changed political parties after winning their elections between 2022 and 2026, according to an analysis by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch.
The report, released on September 24, includes 26 Lok Sabha MPs, seven Rajya Sabha MPs and 78 MLAs. According to ADR, 29 of these lawmakers, or 26%, joined the BJP. The Naga People’s Front (NPF) received the highest number, with 32 lawmakers, accounting for 29% of the total. ADR noted that the NPF figure was largely linked to a party merger in Nagaland rather than individual defections.
The party switching cases were reported across 17 states and Union Territories. Nagaland recorded the highest number with 32 cases, followed by West Bengal with 20. Telangana had nine, while Goa and Punjab recorded eight each.
ADR said the 111 cases included different types of political changes. These included individual defections, party mergers, lawmakers who resigned and later won by-elections on another party’s ticket, and members who were disqualified before returning to the House after winning a by-election.
The organisation also cautioned that its list may not include every such case because of the lack of systematically maintained and easily accessible official data.
Who joined the BJP?
Of the 29 lawmakers listed by ADR as having joined the BJP, seven were Rajya Sabha MPs and 22 were MLAs. The report does not list any Lok Sabha MP among those who joined the BJP.
The seven Rajya Sabha MPs — Swati Maliwal, Ashok Mittal, Harbhajan Singh, Raghav Chadha, Sandeep Kumar Pathak, Vikramjit Singh Sahney and Rajinder Gupta — had originally been elected from the Aam Aadmi Party, according to the ADR dataset.
The BJP entrants also included Congress MLAs from Goa, Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, along with five JD(U) MLAs from Manipur.
The list also includes Samajwadi Party MLA Manoj Kumar Pandey from Uttar Pradesh, Congress MLA Nirmala Sapre from Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka MLA G Janardhan Reddy. ADR classified Reddy’s case as part of the merger of his Kalyana Rajya Pragathi Paksha (KRPP) with the BJP.
Four Gujarat Congress MLAs — CJ Chavda, Arjun Modhwadia, Arvind Ladani and Chirag Patel — resigned, joined the BJP and later contested by-elections, according to the report.
Why did NPF receive 32 lawmakers?
The NPF became the biggest recipient of lawmakers in the ADR analysis, with 32 cases.
The figure was mainly linked to a political merger in Nagaland in October 2025. According to ADR, lawmakers elected on Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) tickets joined the NPF following the merger.
The NDPP, led by Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio, had 32 MLAs, while the NPF had two at the time. The Nagaland Assembly has 60 members.
The NDPP and BJP, which had 12 MLAs, were part of the government in the state. Following the merger, Rio was elected leader of the NPF Legislature Party.
Rio had said the merger was aimed at creating “one strong regional party” to represent Naga aspirations and address the long-pending political issue in the state.
ADR therefore counted the NPF cases as party changes resulting from the merger, rather than individual lawmakers independently switching sides.
26 Lok Sabha MPs among party switchers
After the NPF and BJP, the Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI) was the next major recipient in the ADR data, with 20 lawmakers.
ADR’s analysis found that 26 Lok Sabha MPs changed parties during the period covered. Seven Rajya Sabha MPs and 78 MLAs were also included in the total of 111.
The report said 20 MPs from the Trinamool Congress were among those who moved to the NCPI following political developments in West Bengal.
On the other side, the NDPP had the highest number of lawmakers leaving it, with 25. The Trinamool Congress followed with 20, while the Congress had 19. Together, these three parties accounted for 64 of the 111 cases, or 58%.
ADR’s figures show that 26 of the 543 Lok Sabha MPs covered by the analysis changed parties, while seven of 233 Rajya Sabha MPs and 78 of around 4,100 MLAs were included in the list.
ADR seeks changes to anti-defection law
ADR has also called for changes to India’s anti-defection framework based on its findings.
The organisation recommended changes to the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution so that decisions on disqualification are taken by the President in the case of MPs and by governors in the case of MLAs, based on the Election Commission’s advice.
It also called for restrictions on lawmakers who switch parties from holding public office and suggested fixed timelines for deciding disqualification petitions.
ADR said the findings highlighted the need to address what it described as the “politics of convenience and self-gain” and called for greater accountability in the political system.
The report covers cases identified by ADR up to July 12, 2026, and the organisation has said the list may not be exhaustive.