The dismissal by the High Court of disqualification pleas against 12 MLAs from Congress and 2 MLAs of MGP, after a prolonged legal battle in the court must have provided a great sense of relief to the concerned MLAs and the BJP, to whom these MLAs had defected. However this judgement is unlikely to resolve the contentious issue of defection. On the other hand it may further embolden particularly the MLAs of smaller parties to easily disband the party on whose ticket they had been elected.
An analysis of the various defections that have taken place over the years brings out a clear pattern, that the role of voters cease once they cast their votes for a particular candidate or a political party. In view of the defective anti-defection law many voters are discouraged from voting in the election because of their inability to have any hold on the MLA they have elected and hence this demands an urgent modification to make the anti-defection law foolproof and give it more teeth. Also it will give the voters a say on how the elected representatives behave after the election.
