Historical analysis highlights the influence of political defections on governance in India between 1952 and 1985, indicating a significant impact on stability.
Politics of defection has been a sad reality of Indian political system. After 4th General Election (1967) Indian political system came to experience a spate of political defections. Politics of defection has its history in pre-independence India. But defections took place on a very limited scale. Between 1967 to 1970, 23 governments came and collapsed. In seven states, defections had a field day. As many as eight defectors became Chief Ministers and many others were successful in getting ministerial berths. Minority governments formed by defectors and supported by some parties from outside came into existence in Haryana, Punjab, West Bengal and Bihar. 32 governments of 10 states fell down because of defection politics. The practice continued radically up to 1985 in many states of India. This paper highlights the history of political defections in India from 1952 to 1985.
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Nagaraj G. Havinal (2026) studied this question.
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