Talasani Srinivas Yadav, a Telugu Desam Party (TDP) Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) in Telangana, is serving in the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) cabinet as commercial taxes and cinematography minister since 16 December 2014. This unethical continuance of Yadav in the TRS cabinet for more than six months, without disqualification from the assembly, questions the very viability of the anti-defection law in India.
This development reminds us how Mulayam Singh Yadav, who came to power in Uttar Pradesh in 2003, formed a jumbo cabinet of 98 ministers that included defectors from different parties (Tribune 2003). In Telangana’s case, the minister who defected, the chief minister who mentored the defection, the governor who administered the oath of the defector and the assembly speaker who has been protecting the defector have acted against the very spirit of the anti-defection law. Moreover, this sabotage is taking place with the help of provisions of the anti-defection law, which are provided in the Constitution itself. Such repeat of history is a reminder of the need to make amendments in the anti-defection law to regulate the members’ disqualification process—the major loophole in the present anti-defection law.
In the 2014 Telangana assembly elections, TRS secured a comfortable victory by bagging 63 out of the 119 seats in the assembly (ECI 2014). This triumph was largely possible due to the gratitude showered on the party by Telangana people for its unique role in the Telangana movement, as well as pre-election defections from TDP, Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Yuvajana, Shramika, Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP), and others to the TRS. Despite the electoral success, this election has exposed the organisational weakness of the TRS. The party won 50% or fewer seats in half of the districts, that is, five out of 10. While in the state capital, Hyderabad, and Khammam District, the party has won only one seat each out of 15 and 12 respectively. It won 50% or less seats in Mahabubnagar, Nalgonda and Ranga Reddy Districts (ECI 2014). Such weak performances of the party in half of the districts prompted the TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao to attract leaders from other parties. Despite being a chief minister, Rao started to woo MLAs of other parties in what was dubbed as “operation akarsh” by opposition parties and their media.
This operation has a twofold objective. First, to add depth to the party’s mass base in districts like Hyderabad and Khammam, and second, to wipe out the opposition parties. If the results of the last Member of Legislative Council (MLC) elections, released on 1 June 2015, are any scale to measure the success of operation akarsh, it was a great success. Though the TRS originally had 63 MLA seats, it has got a total of 85 MLA votes for its five MLC candidates, 17 votes each (Newsminute.com 2015). Besides the votes of one Anglo–Indian MLA, and the seven All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) MLAs, who supported the TRS, the party bagged 14 additional votes. Going by media reports, the party could attract two MLAs each from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and YSRCP, one independent, four Congress and five TDP MLAs.
