AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi on Thursday, June 18, 2026, sharply questioned the wave of legislators defecting to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), calling out both Shiv Sena (UBT) and Trinamool Congress (TMC) over their inability to retain members — and challenging opposition leaders to explain why their MPs are leaving rather than pointing fingers at individuals.

Context

Owaisi's post, shared on X (formerly Twitter), referenced reports that some Shiv Sena (UBT) MPs are also considering joining the BJP, adding to what he described as a broader pattern of defections. He specifically called on two 'prominent MPs' from the UBT faction to name whoever allegedly 'threatened' their colleagues into switching sides. He also pointed to 19 TMC MPs said to have defected, questioning why that exodus had not been similarly explained.

In a pointed aside, Owaisi quoted the Qur'an (Surah Al-Humazah, 104:1) — 'Waylul-likulli humazatil-lumazah' ('Woe to every backbiter, slanderer') — appearing to caution those who deflect blame rather than accept accountability. He closed with the Hindi phrase 'Shikari naya hai, jal puraana hai' ('The hunter is new, but the net is old'), implying that the tactics used to engineer defections are a long-standing pattern, not a new phenomenon.

Policy Backdrop

India's Tenth Schedule, inserted into the Constitution in 1985, was designed specifically to deter legislators from switching parties after election. Despite this anti-defection law, large-scale floor-crossings have recurred across states, often exploiting provisions that allow mergers of at least two-thirds of a legislative party.

The most prominent recent instance was the 2022 Maharashtra crisis, when a majority faction of the original Shiv Sena, led by Eknath Shinde, broke away and formed a government with the BJP. The Uddhav Thackeray-led rump — now recognised as Shiv Sena (UBT) — has since operated as an opposition entity, yet Owaisi's post suggests it too is facing internal churn. Since 2014, similar patterns have played out in Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Goa, and West Bengal, consistently weakening non-NDA parties' floor strength.

Stakeholders and Impact

For Shiv Sena (UBT), any further defections would deepen the existential crisis the party has faced since the 2022 split. The party has already lost its original name and symbol to the Shinde faction following Election Commission rulings. Fresh defections, if confirmed, would further erode its parliamentary presence and bargaining power within the INDIA bloc.

For the TMC, the reported departure of 19 MPs — if verified — would represent a significant blow to the party's national footprint outside West Bengal. Owaisi's critique implicitly targets both parties' leaderships, arguing that systemic weakness, not external pressure alone, explains why members are leaving. Opposition MPs and regional parties across the country are key stakeholders in any disqualification petitions that may follow under the anti-defection law.

What's Next

Owaisi's intervention signals that the defection debate is likely to intensify in the coming weeks, particularly if Shiv Sena (UBT) or TMC leaders respond publicly to his challenge. Disqualification petitions filed under the Tenth Schedule in Parliament or state assemblies would be the immediate legal avenue, and any such petitions could trigger by-elections in affected constituencies.

The broader question Owaisi raises — why large-scale defections to the BJP remain structurally easy — is one that opposition parties will need to answer both in court and at the ballot box. As he put it, 'You cannot blame one prominent MP for all your failures.'