Politics is treacherous terrain. That perhaps explains why politicians are prone to performing somersaults, either by volition or on account of sour fate. Some leaders are particularly skilled at such acrobatics. Sovan Chatterjee, the former mayor of Calcutta, seems to have perfected the art, hopping from the bandwagon of the Trinamul Congress on to the cart of the Bharatiya Janata Party: he has now tumbled out of the latter. Mr Chatterjee is said to have been miffed with the BJP’s refusal to give him an election ticket from his favourite constituency. Indeed, humouring disaffected leaders could take up a lot of energy within the BJP in the coming days, given the heartburn among its cadre over ticket distribution in Bengal. The BJP’s district chief of Alipurduar has declared that he has little knowledge of the party contestant chosen for the seat; it has also been reported that the BJP’s nominee for Raidighi — he was accused of corruption by the BJP — is yet to join the party formally.

Encouraging defections from the camps of opponents is, these days, held up as an instance of chanakyaniti. Consequently, the turncoat is making hay — and not just during the season of elections. Even though every political outfit has attempted to appease the turncoat, it is the BJP — does it not have the deepest pockets? — that has gained the most by engineering defections: Operation Lotus bloomed spectacularly in Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh, to cite two examples. Carrots and sticks — monetary inducements as well as intimidation — are used generously to make defectors turn tables on their original patrons. The existing anti-defection law has not proved to be a match for such mischief. The ideological infidelity of defectors, their indifference to the mandate of the people and, most worryingly, citizens’ apathy towards the chicanery of their representatives are worrying signs for Indian democracy. But the turncoat is as much a bane as a boon. The BJP’s Bengal experience is a pointer to this double-edgedness. The induction of deserters from the TMC is said to be widening chasms within the BJP, with a number of old-timers expressing their unhappiness with the party’s willingness to reward defectors. The BJP’s strategy to keep its door open shows that in spite of its ambitious proclamations, the party remains organizationally deficient. If the poll winds blow differently, Bengal could witness a round of ghar wapsi among defectors.