At least 47 rebel candidates among the four major political parties – the BJP, Congress, People’s Democratic Party and the National Congress – are contesting in the 2024 Assembly elections and have recently changed parties, changing loyalty to the old party.
Apart from them, three leaders have also rejoined their parties as the elections neared, having previously defected from them.
As many as 31 of these 50 candidates have joined their current parties only in the past two years, which is why some seats have witnessed rebellions.
According to Excelsior’s analysis, a traitor is defined as a political leader who changed parties after the 2014 assembly polls.
In percentage terms, Congress has the highest number of traitors. More than a quarter of candidates (28%) have recently left other parties to join Congress. The list of at least 11 traitors (out of 39) is led by the party’s current chairman, Tariq Hameed Karra, who left the HDP and joined the party in 2017. However, he is a rare exception, having switched parties before 2019. All other 10 traitors have joined Congress in the past two years. Congress draws talent mainly from smaller regional parties.
At least four of these parliamentary traitors are from the Democratic Action Party. They left the Congress when former chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad formed his own party, the Democratic Progressive Azad Party, in 2022. However, former deputy prime minister Tara Chand, former Congress president Peerzada Mohd Sayeed and former party vice-president Haji Abdul Abdul also left Congress. Rashid Dar (Sopore) rejoined the party in 2023. While former minister Manohar Lal Sharma (Bilawal) joined the party earlier this year. With the exception of Said, all three have previously represented districts they opposed. In fact, Dar won Sobol’s support in the 2014 parliamentary elections.
Meanwhile, the party has attracted three candidates from Aam Aadmi Party in Jammu region and was once thought to be making headway. Former minister Yashpal Kundal and DDC member from Suchetgarh Taranjit Singh Tony, who joined the Congress in 2023 and left the AAP, They will contest from the Ramgarh and Bahu seats respectively. The party’s candidate from Indwar, Sheikh Zafarullah, also joined earlier this year, leaving AAP.
Three other traitors on the Congressional list are also former members of Congress. In 2014, former minister Chaudhary Lal Singh quit the party after being defeated in Lok Sabha elections. He won the 2014 polls from the same parliamentary seat (Batholi) on the BJP ticket but returned again ahead of the national elections earlier this year. The party’s Reasi candidate and former MLA Mumtaz Khan left the party in 2020 to join the Apni Party. However, he returned to the party after the election was announced. Days before filing nominations, former Bandipora MLA Nizamuddin Bhat also joined the Congress. He parted ways with the PDP in 2019 and recently became a PC member.
The BJP has also fielded several high-profile defectors. The party has fielded at least 13 turncoats out of a total of 62 candidates, except Katra candidate Baldev Raj Sharma and Udhampur West candidate Pawan Gupta (who rejoined after being expelled in 2014). The two were expelled after they rebelled after refusing to vote.
Among the 15 candidates, 12 turncoats are from Jammu region. The BJP is facing a revolt after the party leadership announced tickets, which included issuing tickets to traitors.
Two-thirds of the 15 candidates are from North Carolina or Congress. The most prominent defectors from the national conference are former NC state president Devinder Singh Rana (Nagrotta) and senior leader Surjit Singh Slatya (Samba). Both joined the BJP in 2021. Other turncoats from North Carolina include former minister Syed Mushtaq Ahmed Buhari (Surankote) in 2024, former MP Thakur Randhir Singh (Kalakote) in 2020 -Sunderbani) and 2023 Rajpora candidate Arshid Bhat.
The most prominent Congress defector is former minister Sham Lal Sharma (Jammu North), who switched sides in 2019. In the same year, Professor Gharu Ram (Suchetgarh) also changed his stance. Others who have joined the BJP from the Congress include Chanapora candidate Hilal Ahmed Wani, Mendal candidate and former RCD Murtaza Khan, and Tanner Mandi Candidate Mohd Iqbal Malik.
Former Gurez MLA Faqir Mohammad Khan, who will leave the People’s Democratic Party to join the BJP in 2020, will also contest from the same constituency. Balwant Singh Mankotia, the former UT president of the Black Panther Party who was later expelled from the AAP, joined the BJP in 2020 and will contest against Chenani. On the other hand, former minister Chaudhry Zulfkar left the Apni Party and joined the BJP days after the Election Commission announced the elections last month. He will compete with Budhar.
While the Congress and the BJP have fielded the highest proportion of turncoats, the People’s Democratic Party has also fielded one of the highest numbers of such candidates in absolute numbers. Of the at least 15 traitors, most did not join the party until 2024. The party has fielded 82 candidates.
After the collapse of the BJP-PDP government in 2018, the Mehbooba Mufti-led PDP faced various personnel exodus with several senior leaders leaving the party. One of the most significant exodus was led by former minister Altaf Bukhari, who formed his own party, the Apni Party, in 2020.
However, at least five turncoats abandoned the party before the election and later returned to the HDP. Former MP Fayaz Ahmad Mir, who rejoined the party ahead of the Lok Sabha polls to fight for the elections, has been serving in the Lok Sabha for the past three years. He finished fourth in the Baramulla Lok Sabha constituency and is now set to contest from Kupwara.
Former ministers Syed Bashir Ahmed (Rajpora) and Basharat Buhari (Wagoora Kreeri) also rejoined the party earlier this year. Ahmed made the switch within months of joining the Apni Party. Buhari first joined the NC in 2018, then joined the People’s Conference in 2021 before rejoining the PDP this year. Similarly, Eidgah candidate Mohd Khursheed Alam left the Progressive Party and Thannamandi candidate Qamar Hussain Choudhary also left the Apni Party earlier this year to contest elections under the name of PDP.
The only major PDP candidate to switch before 2019 was Grandmaster Tasaduq Hussain from Rajouri. He joined the party in 2018, leaving the Congress.
After two years of quitting the party, former minister Abdul Haq Khan has rejoined the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) ahead of the elections and will contest Loorab in Kupwara district for the third consecutive time under the PDP banner campaign.
Nearly half of those who joined (7 out of 16) joined the HDP only after the elections were announced. Apart from Syed Bashir Ahmed, Qamar Hussain Chaudhry and Haq Khan, the party’s Khan Sahib candidate Manzoor Ahmed Wani (PC, left), Kokenagah candidate Haroon Rashid Qatana (DPAP, left), Birwah candidate Haji Ahmed Khan (NC, left) and La Fiabad candidate Altaf Ahmed Malik (Congress, L) joined the People’s Democratic Party after the election dates were announced.
Other PDP traitors include Mohd Amin Dar (Kulgam), Shabir Ahmad Mir (Gulmarg), Adv Haq Nawaz (Nowshera) and Vicky Kumar Dogra (Bishnah). Apart from Dogra, 11 of these Peoples Democratic Party candidates are from Kashmir and three from Rajouri district.
Although smaller in number, North Carolina did not shy away from sending out traitors. There are at least 9 traitors out of 55 NC candidates. Seven people have recently been linked to the PDP. PDP founding members Mohammad Khalil Band, Mehboob Iqbal (Bhaderwah) and Irshad Rasool Kar (Sopore) all joined the NC a year after the collapse of the BJP-PDP in 2018. Other members of the PDP include former MLC Javid Mirchal in 2024 and Saifuddin Bhat in 2020.
The party’s Noshera candidate and former MLC Surinder Choudhary ended a year-long association with the BJP last year to join NC. Before that, he was also a member of the People’s Democratic Party. In Nagrotta, once a party stronghold, the party has given power to former BJP leader Joginder Singh Kaku.
Former MLA and Baramulla Party candidate Javid Beig was associated with the party before joining the Apni Party in 2024. Before joining the Apni Party, Beg won the 2014 assembly elections on a People’s Democratic Party ticket from Baramulla. NC’s Vijaypur candidate Rajesh Pargotra left AAP to join NC after the elections were announced.
Notably, NC is relying on turncoats in Badwa, Sopore and Nagrota, where the party is fighting a friendly fight with its ally Congress.
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