The states which fielded the highest number of turncoats have seen most of them trail behind – 14 of 19 in Telangana, 15 of 25 in Uttar Pradesh, and 10 of 19 in Maharashtra.
A total of 168 turncoats contested the Lok Sabha polls this year. UP topped the list with 25 such candidates, followed by 19 each in Telangana and Maharashtra. And at least 74, or 44 percent of candidates switched allegiance in 2024 itself.
Newslaundry had scanned through more than a 1,000 candidates to identify the turncoats and delved into the political trajectory of over a 100 in our series Know Your Turncoats. Now, let’s look at their performance in UP, Maharashtra and Telangana at the time of writing this report.
Uttar Pradesh
Out of the 25 turncoats in UP, 10 are leading – BJP’s Jitin Prasada; Samajwadi Party’s Lalji Verma, Ram Shiromani Verma, Ramprasad Chaudhary, Sunita Verma, and Krishna Devi Shivshankar Singh Patel; Congress’s Danish Ali, Rakesh Rathore, Ujjawal Raman; and Nishad Party’s Vinod Kumar Bind.
Among these, BJP’s Prasada and SP’s Verma are on their way to chart big victories with the highest vote margin among the UP turncoats, while the latter’s colleague Dr Mahendra Nagar is trailing with the widest margin.
Prasada is leading in Pilibhit against Samajwadi Party’s Bhagwat Saran with 1,35,718 votes. He jumped from the Congress to the BJP ahead of the 2021 UP assembly elections, saying that the BJP was the “only national party” and that he had felt “surrounded by politics” in the Congress. Before he switched sides, he was part of Manmohan Singh’s cabinet.
SP’s Verma contested from Amedkar Nagar in UP – a turncoat hot seat with both the BJP and the SP fielding defectors. He is leading with 1,20,929 votes against the BJP’s Ritesh Pandey. Both Verma and Pandey were colleagues in the BSP until the former switched to the SP in November 2021. Pandey joined the BJP in February this year.
Meanwhile, SP’s Mahesh Nagar, who is contesting from UP’s Gautam Buddha Nagar, is trailing by 4,79,425 votes against BJP’s Mahesh Sharma. The 68-year-old politician jumped ship from the Congress to the SP in 2022. He got the SP’s ticket after the party withdrew Rahul Awana’s candidature over an FIR lodged against him for blocking a road.
At the time of writing this report, both the BJP and the SP were leading in 35 seats, while the Congress was in lead on six seats and the RLD in two.
Maharashtra
In Maharashtra, there are 19 turncoats, of which nine are leading as the ECI continues to count votes. They are Sharad Pawar faction’s Amar Sharadrao Kale, and Dhairyasheel Mohite Patil; Ekanth Shinde faction’s Dhairyashil Mane, Sandipanrao Bhumre, Naresh Mhaske, Shrirang Barne, and Shrikant Shinde; and Shiv Sena UBT’s Bhausaheb Rajaram Wakchaure and Sanjay Dina Patil.
In a Sena vs Sena fight in Kalayan, Shiv Sena Eknath Shinde faction’s Shrikant Shinde is leading with 2,03,072 votes against Vaishali Debakar Rane of Shiv Sena Uddhav Thakrey. The 37-year-old politician sided with his father Eknath Shinde when the party split in 2022.
In Thane – which was also a Sena vs Sena battleground – Eknath Shinde faction’s Naresh Mhaske is leading with 1,45,182 votes in the contest against Shiv Sena UBT’s Rajan Baburao. He also sided with Eknath Shinde in 2022.
Maval also witnessed a contest between turncoats – Eknath Shinde faction’s Shrirang Barne and UBT’s Sanjog Bhikuwagher Patil. Barne is leading with 1,02,707 votes. While he defected from undivided Shiv Sena, Patil had jumped ship to Ajit Pawar’s NCP and then the UBT in December last year. The party hopper was with the BJP till 2018.
As of now, Shiv Sena UBT is leading on nine seats and has claimed victory on one seat. Meanwhile, the Eknath Shinde faction is ahead in six constituencies and the BJP is leading in 11. The Congress is leading in 11 seats and has sealed victory in one.
Telangana
Telangana too has 19 turncoats. Of these, five are leading – BJP’s Godam Nagesh, Etela Rajender, Konda Vishweshwar Reddy, DK Aruna; and Congress’s Kadiyam Kavya. Meanwhile, the BJP candidate from Nalgonda, Saidi Reddy, is currently trailing against the Congress’s Kunduru Raghuveer by 5.5 lakh votes. Reddy shifted his allegiance from the Congress to the BJP in March this year.
Nama Nageshwar Rao is Bharat Rashtra Samithi’s candidate from Khammam in Telangana. He switched from the TDP to the BRS in 2019. At present, he is trailing against the Congress’s Ramasahayam Raghuran Reddy by 4,67,847 votes. He won the seat in the 2019 Lok sabha elections.
The BJP’s candidate from Telengana’s Mahabubabad, Azmeera Seetaram Naik, is trailing against Congress’s Balaram Naik Porika by 3.4 lakh votes. He jumped ship from the BRS to the saffron party in March this year. The 66-year-old won the seat in 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
At the time of writing this report, the Congress and the BJP both had won one seat each and were leading in seven constituencies each.
Out of the 20 women turncoats across the seats, six are leading – SP’s Sunita Verma; Bhartiya Janta Party’s Kalaben Delkar, Malvika Keshari Deo, Krishna Devi; JDU's Lovely Anand and LJP's Veena Devi. Among these, the BJP’s Malvika Keshari Deo in Odisha’s Kalahandi is the only one leading with a margin of more than one lakh votes against the BJD’s Lambodar Nial. Deo is a former BJD member herself. She hopped to the BJP last year.
Research assistance by Sredha Sreejith.
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