What happens if a politician does not get their desired position in the political party that they’re paying allegiance to? Either an exodus or desertion takes place as retaliation. This is what we commonly find: politicians after being overlooked, in anger, act without openly practising the wrong way of violence. I would say that it could be termed as a baffling form of Satyagrah, widely known as part of Gandhian philosophy. It is also like attaining moksha in the political domain, as the politician or a group of politicians defecting can turn out to be quite a ‘holy cow’ in the very party they choose to join. The quick benefit of this opportunistic stand helps the politician secure a ticket to contest the election. It is a kind of a deal or a secret, but not an open pact, before the electoral battle. When the politicians sense big problems in their political life, they apply this means to overcome the apparent obstacles.
If we are not respecting this factual trend in politics, we must have been concealing a very real aspect of the practice. One may say that it is limited to those political parties which fall far away from the centre of power but this is not always true.
These kinds of events makes us see all those experienced narratives that we get to know from our leader’s attitudes. It is, of course, related to a singular purpose of enjoying the benefits of power. It is nowhere a poetic idea. Along this way, our politicians tend to become selective, thereby choosing swiftly what appeals to their desired expectations. In light of this, they seem to be changing parties as we learned through a news report that even as the mass exodus from the Congress party is on, now, it appears that the trend may reverse in the days to come. More than two dozen senior BJP and Shiv Sena leaders have expressed their desire to join the grand old party. In Mumbai, ex-state Congress chief Manikrao Takhre confirmed it adding that “it can be too early to elaborate but I can say they have approached us.”
These leaders are hoping to get a ticket for assembly elections in the state if they join another party. Their entry solely depends on the green signal from the high command. When the Congress and the NCP have entered into an electoral alliance, it is obvious they have to sacrifice seats from their share of 125 each. Though the parties claim to select candidates on their elective merit, it can be said that new entrants are also treated in a didactic manner.