On March 22, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma travelled to Haflong, a picturesque hill town, with a twin purpose: to campaign for the BJP candidate and to talk to his cabinet colleague Nandita Gorlosa, who had been denied a ticket from the seat. He promised a slew of measures for the region, including the creation of two new districts, but could not mollify Gorlosa, one of only two women ministers in his cabinet. Within hours, she quit the BJP, joined the Congress, and filed her nomination from the same constituency. For the Congress, it was a moment of vindication. The party had managed to poach a BJP leader from the very organisation that had spent a decade steadily cannibalising it.
On the other side are Congress leaders who have switched to the BJP and are contesting elections. Former state president Bhupen Kumar Borah and Pradyut Bordoloi, who vacated the Nagaon Lok Sabha seat, both claimed they had been “marginalised and humiliated” within the Congress. “The BJP family is helping us win elections. We will win,” Bordoloi said.
Bordoloi’s seat, Dispur—the administrative capital of Assam—has become a battleground and an example of how politics is changing across the country. Opposing him is Mira Borthakur Goswami, the Congress candidate and state women’s cell in-charge—ironically, a former BJP spokesperson who switched in 2021. “Bordoloi will take time to understand the BJP. The cadre may not support him as he is not from here,” she said. The third key figure in the contest is Jayanta Das, who left the BJP to contest as an independent after Bordoloi was given the ticket.
It is a pattern being repeated across states heading to the polls, raising an old and uncomfortable question: is ideology already dead?
This is evident not only in Assam, where the chief minister and his principal challenger once belonged to the same party, but also in neighbouring West Bengal. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who built a new party out of the Congress and has ruled for 15 years, is seeking another term. Her most formidable challenger is also a former party colleague and one-time close aide, Suvendu Adhikari, who defeated her in Nandigram in 2021. Both began their political careers in the Congress. Adhikari had assisted Mamata in opposing land acquisition by the Left Front government in 2007. After serving as a minister in the Mamata government till 2020, he quit. He is now challenging her from Bhabanipur.
Since his departure, Adhikari has been a part of a steady stream of Trinamool leaders crossing over to the BJP. During the last assembly elections, he was aided by his loyalist Pabitra Kar in defeating Mamata. The Trinamool later poached Kar, who has now been fielded against his former mentor. As Kar takes the battle to Nandigram, he said: “This election is not just about forming a government, but about protecting Bengal’s dignity, development, and self-respect.”
Across West Bengal, both the BJP and the Trinamool have fielded a significant number of turncoats. The BJP in the state is widely seen as lacking a deep grassroots base, which has driven its reliance on leaders from other parties—the same approach it used in Assam when it brought in Sarbananda Sonowal from the Asom Gana Parishad, followed by Sarma from the Congress.
“At the local level, the BJP’s leadership remains unclear, with voters often unable to identify distinct faces within the party structure,” said Suprio Basu, a social scientist specialising in West Bengal politics. “This organisational gap has driven a reliance on defectors, which in turn blurs the distinction between the two major parties.” Subsequently, the BJP and the Trinamool begin to resemble competing platforms drawing from the same political pool. “Political mobility in the state is transactional rather than ideological. Over time, this has eroded ideological clarity, with party affiliation becoming secondary to electoral opportunity,” he said.
This assessment is echoed by Druba Pratim Sharma of Gauhati University. “Defections in Indian politics are less about ideology and more about circumstance. Leaders frequently switch sides after being denied tickets or falling out with their parties, making such shifts a routine feature rather than a principled departure.” The turning point in Assam, he said, was Sarma’s switch from the Congress to the BJP, which accelerated the movement of leaders and gradually eroded the Congress’s once-deep social base in the state.
The trend extends southwards. In Tamil Nadu, the DMK has allocated a number of seats to former AIADMK leaders. The most prominent among them is former chief minister O. Panneerselvam, once known for his loyalty to J. Jayalalithaa. He fell out with current AIADMK leader Edappadi K. Palaniswami in 2022. Panneerselvam said the AIADMK’s cadre base weakened after Jayalalithaa’s death and they shifted towards the DMK. He is now contesting from Bodinayakanur, while his close associates are also given tickets.
Actor Vijay’s Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam has also fielded candidates who switched from both the DMK and the AIADMK in an effort to expand its base rapidly. The AIADMK, for its part, has aligned with the BJP-led NDA. The parallel with Assam is striking: the DMK’s absorption of AIADMK figures mirrors the BJP’s absorption of Congress leaders in the northeast. In both cases, a dominant political formation is being hollowed out not by a new force, but by its principal rival, now serving as a more convenient vehicle for political ambition. Tamil Nadu’s Dravidian bipolarity is beginning to show signs of strain.
In Kerala, where the CPI(M) has long prided itself on internal discipline, defections in this election season have cut deeper than their numbers suggest. Even former MLAs from the Left Democratic Front have crossed over either to the United Democratic Front or to the BJP. Among the most prominent is G. Sudhakaran, a former minister, contesting as an independent backed by the UDF. Aisha Potty, a three-time CPI(M) MLA, has moved to the Congress, while S. Rajendran, also a three-time former CPI(M) MLA, has joined the BJP. The CPI’s sitting MLA from Nattika in Thrissur, C.C. Mukundan, is contesting on a BJP ticket, and the party’s former MLA from Vaikom in Kottayam district, K. Ajith, is also representing the BJP.
Sajad Ibrahim K.M. of the University of Kerala, however, urged caution in assessing the impact of these shifts. “In Kerala, party switching has historically carried less weight in shaping electoral outcomes. Voters tend to prioritise government performance over individual defections, often treating such leaders with scepticism.” What distinguishes Kerala from West Bengal or Assam is that defections here reflect deeper organisational tensions rather than mere ticket distribution. The CPI(M)’s ongoing leadership transition, with Pinarayi Vijayan seeking a historic third term, has created anxieties among senior leaders who fear being sidelined. Those who sense narrowing opportunities are looking for options.
Given that turncoats can also be liabilities, elections are increasingly being framed as prestige contests centred on key leaders. In West Bengal, Mamata has projected the election as a battle from every seat, thereby shielding new entrants and managing anti-incumbency. In Assam, Sarma’s ticket distribution reflects an attempt to build a personal support base, while centralised messaging frames every vote as an endorsement of his leadership.
A similar pattern is visible further south. In Tamil Nadu, the contest is framed around securing a second term for M.K. Stalin. In Kerala, the opposition is focused on denying Vijayan a third term, with defections deployed to impose a political cost on his centralised style of governance.
Each state retains its own distinct context. In Assam, political mobilisation is driven more by local concerns—illegal immigration chief among them—than by national narratives. In West Bengal, as Basu said, the earlier binary between the Congress and the left, and later between the left and the Trinamool, has given way to a sharper polarisation increasingly framed along religious lines. In Kerala, the LDF–UDF contest remains closely fought, with narrow margins the norm. Outcomes are likely to depend less on individual defections and more on governance, alliance cohesion and the ability to consolidate support.
“As political alignments become more fluid and narratives more polarised, the space for stable, programmatic politics appears to be shrinking,” said Basu. “This has left elections to be shaped increasingly by strategy, identity, and shifting loyalties.”
The data does not fully support the electoral success of turncoats. Defections, however, serve another purpose: they create a perception of momentum, signalling which party appears ascendant. It is a familiar pre-election tactic, as old as campaigning itself. At its core, this season of political switching points to a deeper shift. Ideology is no longer central. Politics is increasingly about managing interests and access—and finding the most convenient door.