The brilliance of the merger move lies in the fact that it managed to avoid the penalties under the anti-defection law.

TDP Rajya Sabha MPs Y Sujana Chowdary (2nd L), TG Venkatesh and CM Ramesh join BJP in the presence of party’s Working President JP Nadda (C) and party’s senior leader BJP general secretary Bhupender Yadav (L), in New Delhi, Thursday, June 20, 2019. (PTI Photo/Ravi Choudhary)

New Delhi: Former Andhra Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu’s Telugu Desam Party (TDP) plunged into a political crisis on Thursday after four out of its six Rajya Sabha members joined the BJP.

The four MPs, YS Chowdary, CM Ramesh, Garikapati Mohan Rao and TG Venkatesh, submitted a letter to Rajya Sabha chairman and Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu seeking that they should be recognised as a separate group.

While the move has deepened the TDP’s crisis after it lost 22 of the 25 Lok Sabha seats, and 151 out of 175 Assembly seats to Jaganmohan Reddy’s YSRCP, it has given the ruling BJP a major boost in the Upper House of the Parliament.

The brilliance of the merger move lies in the fact that it managed to avoid the penalties under the anti-defection law.

News18 explains the anti-defection law and what this move means for the BJP.

What is Defection?

Listed under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, the Anti-defection law was introduced by 52nd Amendment in 1985 during the tenure of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

The law defines defection as “to abandon a position or association, often to join an opposing group which essentially describes a situation when a member of a particular party abandons his loyalty towards that party and provide his support (in the form of his vote or otherwise) to another party”

Need for Anti-defection Act

During the formulation of the Constitution of India, there was no mention of political parties and their existence, let alone defection.

It wasn’t until the 1967 elections that things changed when the country evolved into a multiparty democracy. This was the beginning of the coalition era.

Between 1967 and 1971, close to 142 MPs and over 1,900 MLAs defected to other parties. It was during this period that the Hindi expression “Aaya Ram Gaya Ram” became popular when a Haryana MLA changed his party thrice in one day.

However, it took 17 years for the issue of defection to be addressed in the Parliament in 1985.

Conditions of Disqualification Under Anti-defection Act

The Act states that a member of a political party may be disqualified primarily on two grounds mentioned under the fourth paragraph of the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution.

One, if the member voluntarily resigns from the party or disobeys the directives of the party on a leadership vote. Two, if the member votes or abstains from voting as per the party’s whip and without prior permission.

However, the Act also states that it will not be considered a defection under law if a complete political party merges with another political party, if a new party is created by the elected members of another, if the party members don’t accept the merger between the two parties and opt to perform as a separate group.

91st Amendment Act, 2003

The law before the 91st Amendment Act, 2003 defined defection by one-third of the elected members of a political party as a ‘merger’. A merger avoided the penalty of disqualification under the Act.

However, the 2003 Amendment changed this by positing that at least two-thirds of the members of a party must be in favour of a merger to gain validity before the law.

The Amendment also made it mandatory for all defectors to resign from their legislative membership and seek a re-election in the House.

What the defection of four TDP MP’s means?

With four TDP MP’s defecting to the BJP, the saffron party has managed to increase its tally in the Rajya Sabha to 77.

The TDP has eight MPs of which six are members of the Rajya Sabha and the rest of the Lok Sabha. The four members migrating to the BJP is defection by two third of its elected members. Thus, the move is an act of merger and the MP’s will face no disqualification over it under the Anti-defection Act.

The defection assumes significance for the BJP given that it is expected to attain a majority of 124 seats in the House by 2021. However, this depends on how the Assembly elections in Maharashtra, Haryana and Jharkhand play out. Besides, the moves also gives the BJP a toehold in another southern state besides Karnataka.

Currently, the BJP led-NDA now has 102 members in the 245 seat Rajya Sabha out of which the BJP has 73 MPs. The Congress led-UPA has 101 seats with the Congress at 50.

The BJP now awaits the largest attrition drive in the Rajya Sabha in 2020 when 72 members will retire.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s new Cabinet represents bold new ideas to run the country. It is best exemplified through the constitution of Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) which comprises Home, Defence, External Affairs and Finance Ministry.

Modi did not buy into the logic of political seniority for picking the top four members of CCS. The direct inductee, a former Foreign Secretary, S Jaishankar is the case in point.

He reflects Modi’s top concern of handling China and managing Indo-US relationship. Modi has put a micro manager at the helms of the affair as global politics is changing rapidly. 

The Prime Minister promoted Nirmala Sitharaman and handed her Finance portfolio which requires a hands-on minister. Similarly, Amit Shah is a multi-tasker and de facto number two in the government. His elevation as the Home Minister was not a surprise but Modi has chosen him because, after ages, internal security and nationalism have become public issues and Modi would want robust handling of security matters in time to come. 

The only political adjustment has been that of Rajnath Singh who has been shifted to Defence. The ministry does not need handling on a daily basis. It requires gentle guidance and thrust so that services can execute the national mandate. It is for this reason, he also remains number one minister in the order of precedence after Narendra Modi.

Rise and Rise of Nirmala Sitharaman

Her rise looks meteoritic, but she had caught Narendra Modi’s eye as a fiery spokesperson of BJP during UPA 2. Her entry into public life took place when she was made a member of NCW in 2003. She joined BJP in 2006 and went on to become one of the 6 spokespersons under the stewardship of Ravi Shankar Prasad when Nitin Gadkari was the party president. She has surpassed them all. Not only she was appointed a minister of state with independent charge for commerce in 2014 but went on to become the Defence Minister in 2017. She is not a mass leader but is one of those politicians, Prime Minister finds it easy to work with. She is a workaholic and keeps up with the razor-tight time table set by the Prime Minister. 

After a long time, the Finance Ministry will have a hands-on minister. Her elevation as the Finance Minister has sealed her position in the party and government for a long time.

 Less Noise and More work

This mantra underlines the making of the Cabinet. Despite being a giant killer, Smriti Irani was not given a heavyweight industry. She debuted as HRD minister in 2014 but had to be shunted to Textiles for the controversies generated by her. Same is the case with VK Singh who as MOS will have to report to Nitin Gadkari. In the previous dispensation, he had independent charge of Development of North Eastern Region General (DONER) and also looked after overseas affairs. He had the opportunity to travel to Yemen to evacuate Indians but today he only has one portfolio under his belt. 

Continuity and Generational Shift

The Cabinet has been altered considerably but it doesn’t mean that it does not have the element of continuity. Senior ministers like Ravi Shankar Prasad, Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Hardeep Singh Puri, RK Singh, Jitendra Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Piyush Goyal, Dharmendra Pradhan and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi have retained their old portfolios. Though some have got additional responsibility, but it is an acknowledgement of their performance. Modi is perhaps the first Prime Minister after Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi who has successfully carried out a generational shift. Within five years, Modi has ensured that junior leaders like Nirmala Sitharaman, Smriti Irani, Prakash Javadekar, Dharmendra Pradhan, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Piyush Goyal become full-fledged Cabinet Minister. In fact, he has inducted fresh faces as MoS in the government and the example in such case is Anurag Thakur.

Lastly

Modi’s Cabinet is free from the strain of coalition politics. He is the ultimate arbiter of the who gets to work with him and who does not. The only flip side of such arrangement is that contrary opinions become less prevalent and, in the long run, disappear as no one wants to be seen objecting to the supreme leader. I’m sure that this small limitation can be overcome by the new administration.

Agencies

Shivamogga, May 28 : Senior Bharatiya Janata party leader and former Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister K S Eshwarappa, strongly criticising the State Cabinet’s decision to sell over 3666 acres of land to Jindal group at a throw away price, urged the Government to revoke its decision.
Speaking to newsmen here on Tuesday, the BJP leader charged that the State government had decided to hand over huge tract of land to a Company, which had defaulted in making payment to the State government.

“The Congress-JDS coalition government, which is numbering its days is trying to make hay as much as it can before going” he said.

While urging the state government to reverse its decision on granting the land at cheap price, the BJP leader warned of launching statewide agitation on the issue.

On Monday the State Cabinet approved sale of land to Jindal company to expand its Steel Plant in Torangal in Bellari District.
Referring to the reports of the Congress making efforts to wean away some of the BJP MLAs, to avert the collapse of the state government he shot back that “No BJP MLAs are ready to become the prey of the ruling government”.

A news channel earlier, on Monday, accidentally announced that Shashi Tharoor is dead in place of actor Shashi Kapoor.

Rahul Gandhi is the best person to pull the Congress out of its predicament following the setback in the Lok Sabha polls, says party leader Shashi Tharoor while declaring that his party is “alive and kicking” and it is too premature to write its obituary. 

The Congress has no time to sit and lick its wounds as it must immediately pick itself up for the upcoming state elections, Tharoor said.

The party faces an existential crisis with the party president adamant on his decision to quit after the poll debacle — winning just 52 Lok Sabha seats — and its state governments facing an uncertain future. 

Tharoor, who scored an electoral hat-trick by winning from the Thiruvananthapuram seat in the Lok Sabha polls, also said he is ready to take on the job of the Congress’ leader in the Lok Sabha if offered the post.

The Congress still represents the only credible national alternative to the BJP and it will take its message to the country, hopefully under Gandhi’s leadership, he said.

In his view, the Gandhi-Nehru family will continue to command “great clout and respect” within the party, on the basis of the tremendous contributions it has made in shaping and guiding the party since Independence.

Agencies

New Delhi, May 28 : Crisis mounted in the Congress party after Rahul Gandhi insisted that he will step aside as the party president taking moral responsibility over the disastrous show in the Lok Sabha polls, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and other key leaders met the Congress chief here on Tuesday.

The meeting was held amid the reports that party’s highest decision making body, the Congress Working Committee (CWC) may be called again within next 3-4 days.

The CWC met on Saturday in Delhi and rejected Mr Gandhi’s offer to quit and had authorised him to take all necessary drastic steps to restructure the party.

The meeting at the Congress president’s Tughlaq Road residence was also attended by Rajasthan deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot, AICC communication in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala and party’s organisational general secretary KC Venugopal.

It is learnt that the duo from Rajasthan had called on Mr Gandhi as discontent spread among the party leadership and some Ministers have resigned citing ‘moral responsibility’ for the rout.

Senior leaders Ahmed Patel, Sonia Gandhi’s trusted aide and Mr Venugopal had, on Monday met Mr Gandhi.

Mr Patel later tweeted and said that the meeting was for ‘routine administrative work’.

Meanwhile, former Assam Chief Minister and CWC member Tarun Gogoi confirmed that Mr Gandhi was ‘extremely upset with some senior leaders’ at the meeting.

Talking to a private TV Channel, Mr Gogoi revealed that Mr Gandhi had informed leaders in the meeting that “I am not running away, I will fight even more. If I am not looking after the Congress party, then I can fight the ideology”.

According to sources, Mr Gandhi had conveyed to Mr Patel and Mr Venugopal that he is ready to continue for a month till the party finds a ‘suitable alternative’.

Meanwhile RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav on Tuesday described Mr Gandhi’s offer to resign as suicidal.

“Rahul’s offer to resign suicidal. Opposition parties had the common goal to dislodge BJP but failed to build a national narrative. The result in a particular election can never alter the reality in as diverse and plural a country as India”, Mr Yadav tweeted.

In Tamil Nadu, actor turned politician, Rajinikanth also said that Mr Gandhi should not resign.

“I won’t say he lacks leadership qualities. I think it is really difficult to handle the Congress party, where senior- most people are there,” he said.

The fact that the election results have upset the leadership can be understood as since May 23, Mr Gandhi has so far not met the newly elected MPs.

The Congress Working Committee decision on Saturday, had ‘unanimously rejected’ Mr Gandhi’s offer of resignation and said on the contrary, the Congress president has been given a free hand to make all necessary and radical changes to restructure the party.

In the fiercely contested elections, the Congress party could win only 52 seats against BJP’s 303 and it is for the second time the grand old party could not put up an impressive show under the leadership of Mr Gandhi.

More than the central level, the crisis for Congress seems to be deepening in states as so far six Pradesh Congress Chiefs have put in their papers taking the moral responsibility for the party’s poor show.

Among those, who resigned are state unit presidents of UP (Raj Babbar), Punjab (Sunil Jakhar), Assam (Ripun Bora), Jharkhand (Ajoy Roy), Odisha (Niranjan Patnaik) and Maharashtra (Ashok Chavan).

In Karnataka, campaign committee chairman HK Patil and Yogendra Mishra, president of district Congress Committee- Amethi, where Mr Gandhi suffered setback, also have tendered their resignations.

Bengaluru, May 23 : The One-year-old JD(S)-Congress Alliance government is facing imminent threat of losing power in Karnataka, as the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has almost swept the Lok Sabha elections by bagging maximum number of seats as per the latest trends of election votes count taken up in the state this till evening
The Saffron BJP which stoutly gaining from the strong undercurrent of the Modi wave, is poised to win up to 24 seats among the total number of 28 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka.
Coalition pre-poll pact between the two parties seemed flattered as BJP is leading across the regions. Even in Hyderabad-Karnataka, Central region and the Old Mysuru, as well as in the Coastal Karnataka, where the two parties seem to had received a severe reversal for both the parties.
The BJP which held 17 seats in the outgoing Lok Sabha won the first seat when its sitting member Sanganna Karadi declared winner by a margin of 37,424 in Koppal.
The latest trends when counting was taken up in the State this morning said the BJP was leading in 24 seats, Congress in two seats, JD(S) in one seat and the BJP supported an Independent candidate Sumalata leading in key segment Mandya, where she is giving a run-for ?money to the JD(S) candidate, and son of the Chief minister H D Kumaraswamy, Nikhil Kumaraswamy.
The election trend was a major setback for ruling Congress stalwarts in Karnataka ? where JD(S) national president H D Devegowda trailed against a seasoned BJP candidate G S Basavaraju in Tumakuru, seven time parliamentarian K H Muniyappa faced a certain defeat against BJP’s Muniyappa in Kolar-SC segment and former union minister and Karnataka chief minister Veerappa Moily trailing behind local strongman B N Bachche Gowda in Chikkaballapur by a huge margin.
All the Union ministers, and the BJP candidates, including D V Sadananda Gowda (Bengaluru North), Ramesh Jigajinagi (Vijayapura) and Ananthakumara Hegde (Uttara Kannada) were leading with a huge margin against the JD(S)-Congress alliance candidates.
All the sitting BJP MPs, in the outgoing Lok Sabha, of the BJP, are also sailing smoothly on the strong Modi wave, while the new faces including V Muniraju (Kolar), Tejasvi Surya (Bengaluru South), Anna Saheb Jolle (Chikkodi) and A Narayanaswamy (Chitradurga), Dr Umesh jadhav (Kalaburagi) are also comfortably placed to make it a maiden entry to the 18th Lok Sabha.
The Congress had suffered a humiliating defeat, when its stalwart and the leader in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjuna Kharge, who had never lost any elections in his over five decades of politics, had to stumble before the BJP’s new entrant Dr Umesh Jadhav.
The JD(S). the mew found ally of the Congress, also suffered a humiliating electoral loss when its supremo and former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda is facing a certain defeat in Tumakuru and Nikhil Kumaraswamy, the son of the Chief minister H D Kumaraswamy is also on the way of biting the dust in the hands of an independent candidate, Sumalatha in Mandya Lok Sabha seat.
Former Chief minister and the State BJP chief B S Yeddyurappa, who had predicted a spectacular victory for the party had vowed to form the State Government as several Congress MLSs are not happy with the JD(S)-Congress coalition government.
With the BJP poised to score an unprecedented victory in the Lok Sabha elections, the state is expected to witness a fresh political turmoil in Karnataka in the day or two, one of the Senior Congress leader said.
Meanwhile the former Deputy Chief minister and senior BJP leader R Ashok had predicted an imminent fall of the coalition government.

The Election Commission on Tuesday said that the reports of alleged movement of EVMs, purportedly to replace polled EVMs in strongrooms are “absolutely false”, adding that visuals doing the rounds in sections of media “do not pertain to any EVMs used during the polls”.

“Complaints of alleged movement of EVMs, purportedly to replace polled EVMs in strongrooms, doing rounds in sections of media. Would like to unambiguously clarify that reports are absolutely false. Visuals seen viral on media do not pertain to any EVMs used during the polls,” the EC clarified. 

Election Commission: The provisions and protocols have been explained to the political parties on multiple occasions including in several of the 93 meetings held with them at the Commission since announcement of elections.

“The provisions and protocols have been explained to the political parties on multiple occasions including in several of the 93 meetings held with them at the Commission since the announcement of elections,” the Commission released. 

The top poll body also stated that any lapse in the handling of reserve EVMs will be investigated and action will be taken against those responsible. 

“The aspersions in clips being used in media merely pertain to the storage or movement of reserve unused EVMs. However, any case of lapse even in the handling of reserve EVMs is thoroughly investigated and disciplinary action will be taken against the officers responsible”.

Election Commission: The provisions and protocols have been explained to the political parties on multiple occasions including in several of the 93 meetings held with them at the Commission since announcement of elections.

Election Commission: The aspersions in clips being used in media merely pertain to the storage or movement of reserve unused EVMs. However any case of lapse even in handling of reserve EVMs is thoroughly investigated and disciplinary action taken against the officers responsible.

Meanwhile, President Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday also expressed concern over alleged EVM tampering and said that the onus of ensuring institutional integrity of the poll body lies with the EC and it must put all speculation to rest. 

Meanwhile, 22 opposition parties submitted a memorandum before the Election Commission today requesting that the verification of VVPAT slips of randomly identified (05) polling stations should be done prior to the initiation of counting of votes and not after the completion of last round of counting, news agency reported.

In the memorandum, the opposition leaders have also demanded that if any discrepancy is found anywhere during the VVPAT verification, 100 per cent counting of paper slips of VVPATs of all polling stations of that assembly segment should be done.

The Supreme Court, earlier in the day, dismissed a PIL seeking 100 per cent matching of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips with Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) during the counting of votes on May 23 for Lok Sabha polls.

“The CJI had dealt with this matter. Why are you taking chance before a two-judge vacation bench,” the apex court asked.

“We cannot override the CJI’s order… This is nonsense. The petition is taken on board. Dismissed,” Justice Mishra said.

New Delhi, May 13 : The number of candidates with criminal cases against them has inched upwards among all political parties and the highest number of such candidates belong to both the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress.

The number of candidates with criminal backgrounds stood at 15 per cent in the 2009 election.Their number has risen to 19 per cent in these polls — an increase of four per cent. In this case, the ruling BJP is leading with 40 per cent of such candidates with the main Opposition party, Congress, close at its heels at 39 per cent.

The number of candidates with serious criminal offences has gone up substantially from 608 (eight per cent) in the 2009 elections and 908 (that is 11 per cent) in 2014

Simultaneously, the proportion of crorepati candidates has swelled to 29 per cent from 16 per cent in 2009 — almost doubling in size. In this too, the BJP and Congress are equally at par with both showing 83 per cent of their nominees being crorepatis.

Based on analysis of affidavits of 7,828 candidates of 8,049 candidates of the current 17th Lok Sabha elections, the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) in its report pointed out that of these, 1,070 contestants — that is 13 per cent — are those against whom there is a record of serious crimes. In serious crimes are
ranked crimes such as slaughter, murder, abduction, rape and violence against women.

Prof Jagdeep Chokhar, a founding member of the non-partisan body, said this time there were 56 such candidates who have been convicted by court. The number of candidates facing serious criminal cases include 55 murder cases, 184 murderous attempts, 126 cases of crime against women, nine for rape and 47 of kidnapping. At the same time, 95 candidates have said in their manifesto that they have cases lodged against them for giving provocative speeches.