In India, we hold traditions dear. Politicians know that well. That’s why, perhaps, ahead of the assembly polls in Delhi, some of them have kept up with the time-honoured custom of jumping ship, pouring scorn on their old allies and singing praises for their new hosts.

In the past year, the Congress has seen multiple prominent faces abandoning ship for the Aam Aadmi Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party. The biggest blow was arguably in May 2024 when Delhi Congress President Arvind Singh Lovely departed for the BJP, with four other Congress leaders in tow. Months later, five-time MLA Mateen Ahmad left for the AAP with his son and daughter-in-law. 

The BJP, meanwhile, lost three-time MLA Brahm Singh Tanwar and two-time legislator Anil Jha to the BJP, and the AAP lost ministers Kailash Gehlot and Raaj Kumar Anand to the BJP.

While departing, AAP defectors blamed the party and its chief Arvind Kejriwal for “corruption” or “ignoring” people’s rights. Those who left the BJP claimed they had been “ignored”. And those who left the Congress found fault with tickets being distributed to “outsiders” during the Lok Sabha polls last year.

The common thread, of course, was that defectors across party lines hailed their new hosts for their “vision”, their “work for improving lives”. All of a sudden, their new parties became totems of leadership.

Unsurprisingly, several of these defectors have now been fielded in the Delhi polls, perhaps causing heartburn to old hands who didn’t change loyalties. 

For context, Delhi’s assembly has 70 seats. The BJP won three and eight respectively in the elections in 2015 and 2020. This year it’s looking to cross the majority mark for the first time in 26 years. The AAP is hoping to retain power for the fourth time. The Congress is focusing on improving its vote share to 10-12 percent from an abysmal 4.26 percent in 2020.

So far, the AAP has fielded at least 11 turncoats, the BJP eight, and the Congress five. When the eight names featured on its first list of 29 candidates, party workers were reportedly bitter, forcing BJP president JP Nadda to intervene for damage control.

A BJP worker from Chhatarpur summed up his predicament.

“We have worked with Brahm Singh Tanwar for so many years,” he said, referring to the former BJP leader who’s now joined the AAP. “Now the party has fielded Kartar Singh Tanwar [the outgoing AAP MLA] whom we have been criticising for the past 10 years. Though party workers are livid, we have to work for the party.”

Turncoats fielded by the AAP

The AAP’s new candidate, Brahm Singh Tanwar, is a prominent figure in south Delhi, winning from Chhatarpur once in 2013. In the two subsequent elections, he was on the losing side. He previously represented Mehrauli in 1993 and 1998. 

While joining the AAP, Brahm said he wanted to “work under the leadership” of Kejriwal.

“I have fully resolved to sever my ties with the BJP and join the AAP to work under the leadership of Arvind Kejriwal,” he told the media. “It is truly a privilege for me to join AAP through his guidance, as he embodies the commitment to public service and a vision for a better future for Delhi. His commitment to advancing the welfare of all communities and regions, particularly the villages, has motivated me to align myself with him and work hand in hand for the progress of our area and the entire NCR.”

The AAP has now fielded him from Chhatarpur.

Another defector from the AAP to BJP is BB Tyagi, a well-known Purvanchali face in east Delhi and two-time councillor. He unsuccessfully contested from Laxmi Nagar on a BJP ticket in 2015. When moving to the AAP, Tyagi said he wanted to join the party’s efforts to “uplift” people. 

“I was working with the BJP for a long time but I was very impressed with the work that AAP was doing to uplift the people and the facilities it was providing to them,” he said. “...If I can do good for even a few people, then my joining the party will be successful.” The AAP has fielded Tyagi from Laxmi Nagar.

Shagufta Chaudhary, a councillor formerly with the Congress, left the party for the AAP with her husband Chaudhary Zubair Ahmad, district president of the Congress in Babarpur. Zubair is the son of Mateen Ahmad, a five-time MLA. Shagufta said she wanted to “promote peace and harmony” while Zubair diplomatically cited “personal reasons”. Mateen joined them in the AAP less than a month later.

Zubair will contest for the AAP from the Muslim-dominated constituency of Seelampur, a seat his father lost to the AAP’s Abdul Rehman in 2020. Poetically, Rehman will also contest from Seelampur but on a Congress ticket.

In 2020, BJP’s Parvesh Ratan lost the Patel Nagar seat to AAP’s Raaj Kumar Anand. This time too both are battling it out but from different teams. A Jatav face, Ratan joined the AAP last month after being impressed with the party’s ideology. He claimed he was ignored by the BJP. As for Raaj Kumar Anand, he abandoned the AAP for the BJP last July.

In Timarpur, the AAP has fielded Surendra Pal Singh Bittu, a two-time MLA who left the Congress in December. When he joined the AAP, he said, “There is only one party that truly understands the needs of the common people and I will work shoulder to shoulder with the AAP.”

Jitendra Singh Shunty joined the AAP last month too. He was a Shiromani Akali Dal MLA from Shahdara in 2013 and fought his last election in 2015 on a BJP ticket. Shunty won the Padma Shri for social services in 2021; he had transported and cremated 4,000 bodies during Covid.

While joining the AAP, Shunty said, “The concept of human rights was championed by Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh himself during his 123-day hunger strike in Lahore Jail. Inspired by his ideals, I voluntarily decided to re-enter politics – not for power but as a medium to earn blessings.”

In Seemapuri, Dalit leader and three-time Congress MLA Veer Singh Dhingan held the seat from 1998 to 2013. In 2015 and 2020, he lost to AAP’s Rajendra Pal Gautam. Dhingan joined the AAP in November and is the party’s candidate from Seemapuri. He said the Congress was “double-faced” and that he was “deeply upset” by the party having “supported the BJP’ during the MCD Mayor election.

It should be noted that Rajendra Pal Gautam isn’t with the AAP anymore either; he joined the Congress in September.

In Kirari, Anil Jha will contest on an AAP ticket. Jha is a two-time BJP MLA and a Purvanchali face, winning in 2008 and 2013. He joined the AAP in November, saying he was inspired by the AAP government’s work to improve the lives of people belonging to his community.

Then there’s Sumesh Shokeen, who was a Congress MLA in 2008 but lost subsequent elections. He joined the AAP in November, praising Kejriwal for his leadership.

“Whatever work is being done for Delhi Dehat, to connect it with Delhi, it is being done under the leadership of Arvind Kejriwal. I will work together with Arvind Kejriwal for the people of Delhi Dehat and my constituency,” he said. The AAP has fielded him from Matiala.

Ramesh Pahalwan has been fielded by the AAP from Kasturbha Nagar. Pehalwan had quit the AAP in 2017 after four years of association. He then joined the BJP with his wife, two-time councillor Kusum Lata. But both Ramesh and Lata returned to the AAP in December, with Ramesh marvelling at Delhi’s “revolutionary progress” under Kejriwal.

Finally, there’s Jasbir Karala, fielded by the AAP in Mundka, where he’d once contested in 2008 and lost. Kalra was previously the Congress president for Kirari. Unlike the other turncoats we’ve detailed so far, Kalra and his wife, councillor Manisha Jasbir Kalra, left the Congress in 2021 for the AAP.

Turncoats in BJP and Congress

In November, senior AAP leader and minister Kailash Gehlot left the party, saying “political ambitions have overtaken our commitment towards people, leaving many promises unfulfilled”. He joined the BJP, and the AAP suggested it was because he had “several cases” against him by the CBI and ED. Gehlot is a two-time MLA from Najafgarh, and the BJP amiably gave him a ticket from the same constituency for the upcoming polls. 

In May, the Congress suffered a big blow when its state president Arvinder Singh Lovely resigned. He joined the BJP where he’s been fielded from Gandhi Nagar, replacing the BJP’s sitting MLA Anil Kumar Bajpai. It’s a second innings for Lovely, who had previously joined the BJP in 2017 but quit within a year. 

While resigning from the Congress, Lovely criticised the party’s alliance with the AAP and accused it of practising “tukde-tukde politics”. He also said the Congress had given tickets to “outsiders” such as Kanhaiya Kumar from North East Delhi and Udit Raj from North West Delhi.

Along with Lovely, four-time MLA Raj Kumar Chauhan and one-time MLA Neeraj Basoya joined the BJP too from the Congress. Basoya said the Congress’s alliance with the AAP was “wrong, unrealistic and unnatural” and that the party had “destroyed all Congress workers” in the name of “saving Constitution”. 

Chauhan has been given a ticket from Mangolpuri and Basoya from Kasturbha Nagar. Chauhan represented Mangolpuri from 1993 to 2013 from the Congress; he was defeated in the 2013 polls by AAP’s Rakhi Bidlan. Basoya was a Congress MLA in 2008 but lost in 2013 and 2015.

We’d mentioned before that Raaj Kumar Anand won from Patel Nagar in 2020 on an AAP ticket. The Dalit leader is now contesting from Patel Nagar again but for the BJP, which he joined in July. He accused the AAP of diverting funds meant for Scheduled Castes. Anand will take on AAP’s Parvesh Ratan whom he’d defeated before but at the time, Ratan was a member of the BJP.

In Chhatarpur too, it’s a case of two rivals facing each other again but after changing teams. Kartar Singh Tanwar had won the seat on an AAP ticket in 2015 and 2020. He’s now been fielded by the BJP from the same seat. Kartar is going up against his former BJP nemesis Brahm Singh Tanwar, who’s now a part of the AAP.

Kartar joined the BJP because he was “very sad looking at the situation in Delhi”, saying the city under the AAP “has changed for the worse due to corruption such as liquor scams”.

In Badarpur, the BJP has fielded former AAP MLA Narayan Dutt Sharma. Sharma was elected an MLA in 2015; he had been defeated by BJP’s Ramvir Singh Bhiduri in 2013 and 2020. In Seemapuri, the BJP has picked Kumari Rinku, a former Congress leader and two-time councillor who joined the party ahead of the 2022 MCD elections.

Most of the turncoats who jumped to the Congress are former MLAs like Abdul Rehman, who will contest from Seelampur. Rehman became an MLA for the AAP in 2020 though he fought the 2013 polls on a Bahujan Samaj Party ticket. Rehman, who was the AAP’s minority cell president, said his erstwhile party had “ignored the rights of Muslims”. 

Rehman’s resignation from the AAP came soon after Congress’s Mateen Ahmad, his son Chaudhary Zubair, and daughter-in-law Shagufta Chaudhary joined the AAP. Rehman and Zubair will now battle it out in Seelampur, where Rehman had defeated Mateen Ahmad in 2020.

Haji Mohammad Ishraq Khan, a 2015 AAP MLA from Seelampur, joined the Congress in November. Now the party’s nominee for Babarpur, he said the Congress is “the only party that protects the interests and welfare of the people”.

Outgoing AAP MLA, businessman and billionaire Dharampal Lakra has been fielded by the Congress from Mundka. He had been denied a ticket by the AAP and resigned on January 7 to join the Congress. The Congress is also fielding Asim Ahmed Khan, a former cabinet minister, and Devinder Kumar Sehrawat from Matia Mahal and Bijwasan, respectively. Both were AAP MLAs in 2015.

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