Anti-defection law weakens coalitions, MPs and politics

This is the age of the political freelancer. Parties across the country are abandoning the constraining comfort of coalition discipline for free-floating, shifting and temporary alliances. The political manoeuvring around the presidential election makes this particularly clear. In the past, it might have been a straightforward contest between clear-cut alliances: one led by the Congress, one led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), perhaps with a candidate backed by the Left parties thrown into the mix.

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