{"id":193942,"date":"2022-07-04T20:26:47","date_gmt":"2022-07-04T14:56:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=193942"},"modified":"2022-07-04T20:29:15","modified_gmt":"2022-07-04T14:59:15","slug":"why-is-defection-a-non-issue-for-voters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/why-is-defection-a-non-issue-for-voters\/","title":{"rendered":"Why is defection a non-issue for voters?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

News<\/strong>: Recently, India has seen a political drama in Maharashtra<\/strong> in which 37 Shiv Sena legislators were involved in defection.<\/p>\n

Anti-Defection Laws in India
\n<\/strong><\/h5>\n

It is not new to Indian politics, and has been around for a long time. It is a routine exercise in Indian politics.<\/p>\n

There have been several attempts to strengthen laws to curb this menace of defection in politics.<\/p>\n

The bill for this menace was first introduced in the 4th Lok Sabha<\/strong> in 1967. However, it became a law as the Anti-Defection law<\/strong> in 1984. Further, the act was amended in 2003 to strengthen the legislation.<\/p>\n

What are the causes of such a high level of defection in India?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Indian voters do not have concern about candidates defecting from one political party to another.<\/p>\n

There is a party-centred approach<\/strong> in voting in India.<\/p>\n

–<\/strong> For example, a large majority of Indian voters vote for the party and not for the candidate.<\/p>\n

Further, such a voting pattern is prevalent amongst both uneducated and educated voters, amongst urban and rural voters and amongst voters with various degrees of media exposure.<\/p>\n

Many legislators<\/strong> defect to other parties for purely personal gain<\/strong>s.<\/p>\n

–<\/strong> For example, there would be greater chances of win if elections are contested on the ticket of any \u201cpopular<\/strong>\u201d political party. It is the party\u2019s ticket and the popularity of its leader that helps them win the election.<\/p>\n

Indian voters are divided on what kind of representatives<\/strong> they would prefer to vote for.<\/p>\n

–<\/strong> For example, 48% voters are happy to vote for an honest but inaccessible candidate, 24% voters are happy to vote for a candidate who is corrupt but accessible and 36% voters are ready to vote for a candidate with criminal background, but gets works done etc.<\/p>\n

Way Forward<\/strong><\/h5>\n

If voters take into consideration<\/strong> the merits and demerits of candidates, then many defectors<\/strong> and candidates<\/strong> with questionable records would fail to make it into Parliament or the Assemblies of different States.<\/p>\n

Voters should decide to choose<\/strong> the candidate rather than the party during elections. It would push the MLAs\/etc. to do work instead of just switching to parties just for electoral gain.<\/p>\n

There is a slight increase in candidate-centred voting <\/strong>amongst Indian voters <\/strong>during the last few years.<\/p>\n

–<\/strong> As per the Lokniti-CSDS\u2019s the National Elections Studies, <\/strong>during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, 58% voters mentioned voting for the party while 33% said they voted for the candidate. However, findings of 2019 Lok Sabha elections, says, 52% voted for the party and 37% voters preferred voting for the candidate.<\/p>\n

Source<\/strong>: The post is based on an article \u201cWhy is defection a non-issue for voters?\u201d published in the \u201cThe Hindu\u201d on 4th<\/sup> July 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

News: Recently, India has seen a political drama in Maharashtra in which 37 Shiv Sena legislators were involved in defection. Anti-Defection Laws in India It is not new to Indian politics, and has been around for a long time. It is a routine exercise in Indian politics. There have been several attempts to strengthen laws… Continue reading Why is defection a non-issue for voters?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10328,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[212,10498],"class_list":["post-193942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-the-hindu","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704886290},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10328"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193942\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}