The Bharatiya Janata Party is being assailed by a hailstorm of resignations from its leaders in poll-bound Karnataka. The former chief minister, Jagadish Shettar, one of the tallest leaders from the Lingayat community after B.S. Yediurappa, has defected from the BJP to the Congress. Mr Shettar’s abandonment of the saffron ship had been preceded by the resignation of Laxman Savadi: he, too, joined the Congress. The cause — several other BJP leaders have also been unhappy with this — remains the same: disgruntlement over ticket distribution. Both Mr Shettar and Mr Savadi were denied tickets for the forthcoming polls. There is a line of thought that argues that the BJP is trying to deflect attention from the allegations of taint by blooding fresh faces. But the outcome of these hiccups appears portentous for the party given that the election is expected to go down to the wire: the BJP’s inroads into some politically significant turfs — Belagavi is an example — is likely to be affected adversely. Worse, in the long term, the Congress, which has lapped up these turncoats, may be able to form a more durable political tie with the Lingayat community, which is deemed as a prized catch. The flurry of resignations also dismantles yet another carefully-crafted myth about the BJP: that unlike the Congress, it is a party honed on the virtues of discipline and ideological fidelity. This is a hollow claim. Despite its regimental structure, the BJP, just like any other contemporary political outfit, remains vulnerable to personal squabbles, ambition and the resultant implosions. It is perhaps pertinent to mention that Mr Shettar’s fate was reportedly sealed by the outgoing chief minister, Basavaraj Bommai, who wants the wings of senior leaders to be clipped.

All this, however, bares a bitter truth. Indian politics today resembles an arena of mercenaries with fickle commitment. This erosion of political ethics undermines democracy in crucial ways. The booming culture of defection, which has been exploited by the BJP to the hilt, undermines the mandate of the electorate, time and again, exposing states to political instability. It also bares the existing loopholes in the legal framework to check horse-trading. The greatest challenge though is the increasing public endorsement for defection: 15 of the 17 legislators who had defected to the BJP in 2019 were returned to the assembly. The mischief will continue in the absence of public resistance to such chicanery.