New Delhi, 14 September—Coming out in support of Rajya Sabha member Kapil Sibal’s proposal for a 10-year ban on any MP or MLA who switch parties after being elected on the symbol of one party, the Cockroach Janta Party said it made a similar demand in its first demand charter but had sought a much stricter penalty of a 20 years ban on contesting elections and holding public offices.
“Need of the hour! Any elected representative who switches parties after being elected should be barred from holding public office,” CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke wrote on X (formerly Twitter), responding to a post by his CJP colleague Saurav Das on senior advocate Sibal’s proposal to bar defecting lawmakers from public office.
Das said the CJP had made a similar demand. The issue of political defection has been troubling concerned citizens for a very long time but now the way the BJP is breaking parties has become a subject of serious debate.
“Point 5 of CJP’s first demand charter released by @abhijeet_dipke sought the same thing, but much stricter — a ban from holding ANY public office and contesting elections for 20 years,” he wrote.
Das said political defections that led to parties being broken up, lawmakers allegedly being bribed with tens of crores of rupees and governments being toppled amounted to “a fraud committed on the country”.
“Such fraud should never happen. The Anti-Defection law is outdated,” he said, alleging that the ruling party had ensured its misuse in its “lust for eternal power” and that the “young will change this”.
The CJP’s call has come at a time when the Congress has alleged that the Narendra Modi government set a new record for delaying the prorogation of Parliament after it was adjourned sine die.
The opposition party has also alleged that Union home minister Amit Shah is seeking to secure a “super-tainted” two-thirds majority to get a Constitution Amendment Bill involving delimitation passed in the Lok Sabha.
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh alleged last week that Shah was “plotting a comeback” to secure the numbers required to pass the Bill.
“He (Shah) is now plotting a comeback to secure a super-tainted two-thirds majority to get the Constitution Amendment Bill passed in the Lok Sabha. He has already engineered a split in three parties that had voted against the Bill on April 17, 2026 and is using threats, intimidation and incentives to get others (who had also voted against the Bill) to change their stance,” Ramesh alleged.
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