Strange fellow: It’s a battle of turncoats again, this time in Delhi assembly elections. peppermint

Defector politicians are no longer a liability. They are net worth. The political landscape in the Delhi Assembly elections allows such much wider manoeuvres, a barometer of extreme electoral flexibility.

Obviously, it suits everyone.

Take west Delhi’s Patel Nagar, one of the highest connectivity constituencies in the national capital. Veteran Congress leader and former minister Krishna Tirath, who is contesting the elections on a Congress ticket, had contested the elections on a BJP ticket in 2015. His main rival this time, AAP’s Parvesh Ratan, was the BJP candidate five years ago in 2020, who unsuccessfully contested the election against the then-incumbent. AAP leader Raj Kumar Anand, who is now the BJP candidate.

Unclear? This puzzle needs to be understood if we look closely at the high-profile Delhi Assembly elections. Of the triangular fight in the 70-member Delhi Assembly, AAP is the major beneficiary of such largesse: It has given tickets to 22 candidates who have spent time with the Congress or the BJP.

Some of them are legends. Surinderpal Singh Bittu has left Congress and joined BJP and is now contesting from Timarpur on AAP ticket. Matia Mahal veteran Shoaib Iqbal has been part of JD, JD(S), LJP, JD(U), Congress and is now with AAP.

A string of former BJP members now have AAP tickets like Brahma Singh Tanwar, BB Tyagi, Jitender Singh Shunty and Ramesh Pehelwan, among others.

The BJP, whose high-paced campaign is being led by no less than Prime Minister Narendra Modi and has party supporters in the role, has 10 candidates who have switched sides, many of them from AAP. Some high-profile people include former AAP minister Kailash Gehlot, who is contesting from Bijwasan, as well as Priyanka Gautam and Kartar Singh Tanwar.

Ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, then Delhi Congress chief Arvinder Singh Lovely had joined the BJP – this was not the first time that he had left the Congress. He is now the party’s candidate from Gandhi Nagar, along with the BJP’s candidate from Mangolpuri, Rajkumar Chauhan, a staunch Congressman who left his parent party for the BJP but returned to the Congress after 8 months. In 2024, he again reversed course and joined the BJP.

The Congress, which has given party tickets to nine turncoats, is hardly a stranger when it comes to taking back turncoats or loyalists. Former AAP MLA Colonel Devinder Sehrawat is now contesting from Bijwasan on Congress ticket. He has spent time with BJP and Shiv Sena before joining the party in December last year.

Two Muslim candidates from the Congress ticket, Asim Ahmed Khan and Abdul Rehman, have defected to the AAP, suggesting that the influential minority vote may be divided in the national capital. Chaudhary Zubair Ahmed has praised AAP for quitting Congress and joining hands with Arvind Kejriwal to contest elections from the Muslim-dominated Seelampur assembly constituency.

Analyst Hussain Afsar predicts: “The Muslim vote is definitely going to the Congress. AAP has failed to stand with Muslims on Shaheen Bagh and other issues, saying that law and order is not under them. Then AAP Why vote for?

In a triangular fight, this could mean an advantage for the BJP, which has not been able to translate this into seats despite a 30% vote share in Delhi. The second ghost in such a tight race is a hung assembly.

For those switching political parties, this may mean an immediate reassessment of their goals.