The Anti-Defection Law Back in Focus
The anti-defection law is back in the headlines after seven of the Aam Aadmi Party's ten Rajya Sabha members crossed over to the BJP in April 2026, invoking the Tenth Schedule's merger clause to avoid disqualification. The switch cut AAP's Upper House bench from ten to three and lifted the BJP's tally to 113, while AAP has petitioned the Chairman to unseat the seven. The episode has reopened a long-running argument: does a law written in 1985 to end 'horse-trading' still work, or has its two-thirds merger exception become the very escape hatch it was meant to close?
- anti-defection law
- Tenth Schedule
- 52nd Amendment
- 91st Amendment
- AAP
- BJP
- Rajya Sabha
- C.P. Radhakrishnan
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