Sibal proposes 5-10 year poll ban for mid-term party switchers
Kapil Sibal has proposed disqualifying legislators who switch parties mid-term from contesting elections for five to ten years, and reworking the anti-defection law.
Former Union Minister Kapil Sibal has proposed that legislators who change their political party during an active term be barred from contesting elections and from serving as elected representatives for the next five to ten years.
He made the suggestion while delivering a talk on horse-trading and democracy at an event organised by the Kerala State Committee of the All India Lawyers Union (AILU) on Sunday, September 13, 2026. Opening his address, he described himself as a "Dimagi Naxal".
Mr. Sibal focused on the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, which deals with anti-defection. Under the existing provision, a Member of Parliament is not disqualified for defection if their political party merges with another and two-thirds of the party agrees to the merger. That clause, he said, was designed to protect political realignment but has now become the preferred instrument of wholesale defection.
He argued that those in power would not rush to close a loophole that benefits them. If two-thirds of a legislative party are allowed to rewrite an election, he said, the significance of the people's will is subordinated to post-poll arithmetic.
Mr. Sibal proposed that the Tenth Schedule be reworked so that a merger would simply mean a merger of political parties, and not a mass walkout by legislators. He also said any inducement — whether cash, office, contracts or the quashing of an enquiry — must be treated as corruption rather than as the ordinary give-and-take of politics.
Describing the harm caused by defection as foundational rather than technical, he said the people's mandate ends up falsified when legislators switch sides after an election. Treating the citizens' mandate as a transferable asset, he added, dishonours the promise of democracy. Mid-term party changes, he noted, weaken the accountability of legislators both to citizens and within their parties.
He further said public faith declines in investigative agencies, Governors, Speakers of Legislative Assemblies and courts when they are drawn into the making of majorities while processing defection petitions. When regional parties representing distinct political communities are absorbed through defection, he said, the different voices of the public are not merely defeated but taken over.
Mr. Sibal commended the Union's concern over the issue and observed that it was not by accident that Kerala was spared the crudest versions of defection, attributing this to its political culture, party system and a vigilant public.
AILU State president and senior lawyer K. Gopalakrishna Kurup presided over the meeting. AILU secretary N.C. Mohanan welcomed the gathering, and Joint Secretary N. Manoj Kumar proposed the vote of thanks.