Key Points
To meet the target of winning over 400 of the 543 Lok Sabha seats, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has made room for turncoats in its list of candidates from various states for the general election and is also banking on former bureaucrats to help increase its tally.I)..
The party that typically favours dropping between 20-30% of the sitting lawmakers and legislators to buck anti-incumbency has been on an overdrive to induct newer faces from other political parties, especially those who have held positions in the government or organisation..
It is not unusual for the party to induct and even field turncoats, even though the results are not always favourable, according to party leaders..
Parties accommodate leaders who switch sides by giving them roles or tickets, because they are expected to transfer their support base (from the previous party to the new one) and if they do not get recognition and respect it alienates their supporters, a functionary said, not wishing to be named..
In 2019, some prominent turncoats who failed to win were Shatrughan Sinha, who switched sides from the BJP to the Congress and lost his Patna Sahib constituency to BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad, Baijayant Jay Panda, who quit the Biju Janata Dal to contest on a BJP ticket from Kendrapara in Odisha, and Manvendra Singh, who contested on a Congress ticket in Barmer in Rajasthan..
