FLOOR-CROSSERS

The turncoats who clinched electoral wins after jumping ship and pledging new loyalties

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RAHUL SINGH LODHI, 40

| BJP | Damoh, Madhya Pradesh

Just one switch shot till now makes him a near apprentice-but full of promise. From a family of feudatories in the outback, Lodhi won the Damoh assembly seat on a Congress ticket in 2018 against BJP veteran Jayant Malaiya. However, in 2020, he defected to the BJP and unsuccessfully contested a bypoll from the same seat in 2021. His defeat was rewarded with a Lok Sabha ticket: close ties with party veteran and caste-mate Prahlad Patel reportedly helped. Worthy of an alumnus of Christ Church Boys in Jabalpur-a nursery of bureaucrats and politicians for Mahakoshal and Bundelkhand.

NARAYANDAS AHIRWAR, 63

| SP | Jalaun (SC), UP

Usually, 'defectors' are spoken of in tones ranging from strong disparagement to mild amusementat best, conferred with a pragmatic tolerance of enlightened self-interest in politics. But Ahirwar's 2015 move to the SP, and his unseating of five-time BJP MP and Union minister Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma from a prize reserved constituency in Bundelkhand this time, also spoke of something more-primarily because of his political biography. As a twentysomething, Ahirwar was swept up into Kanshi Ram's DS4 movement, whence he became a founding member of the BSP in 1984. So if his departure was a sign of the attenuation of the BSP's Jatav core, Verma's loss became emblematic of even the nonJatavs deserting saffron.

BABU SINGH KUSHWAHA, 58

I SP | Jaunpur, UP