170 Congress MLAs joined BJP, other parties to contest polls between 2016 and 2020

News Network

March 11, 2021

New Delhi: As many as 170 MLAs left the Congress to join other parties, especially BJP, during the elections held between 2016-2020 while only 18 BJP legislators switched parties to contest the polls in this period, according to a report by poll rights group Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).

The ADR, in a new report, said between 2016-2020, 182 of the 405 re-contesting MLAs, who switched political parties, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), followed by 38 who joined the Congress and 25 who joined the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS).

Five Lok Sabha MPs left the BJP to join other parties during the 2019 Lok Sabha polls while seven Rajya Sabha MPs left the Congress to join another party to contest elections between 2016-2020, the report said.

As many as 170 MLAs left the Congress to join other parties during the elections held between 2016-2020, while only 18 MLAs left the BJP to join another party to contest polls in this period, it added.

"It is to be noted that the recent fall of governments in Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Goa, Arunachal Pradesh and Karnataka State Assemblies were due to defections of their MLAs," the report said.

It said between 2016-20, 10 of the 16 re-contesting Rajya Sabha MPs who switched political parties joined the BJP and five of the 12 Lok Sabha MPs who changed parties joined the Congress during the 2019 parliamentary polls.

For the report, the National Election Watch and the ADR have analysed the self-sworn affidavits of 433 MPs and MLAs, who changed parties and re-contested elections held in the last five years.

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Think Before You Post! Mangaluru Police Crack Down on Provocative Instagram Accounts

News Network

December 5,2025

Mangaluru: In a significant step to curb online hate and intimidation, Mangaluru City Police have registered a suo motu case against multiple Instagram accounts accused of circulating alleged provocative and threatening content.

While monitoring social media activity on Tuesday, Kankanady Town PSI Anitha Nikkam identified the Instagram handle ‘team_targetttt_900’ for posting a hate message alongside images of lethal weapons. Another account, ‘team_nagara_900’, allegedly shared a threatening post targeting activist Bharath Kumdelu, tagging additional pages such as KARAVALI-OFFICIAL.

Several other accounts — including ‘immu_bhai.fan’, ‘target_boy_900’, ‘kings_of_manglore’, ‘team_target_boys.900’, ‘arshad_mangalore’, ‘target_ka19_ullal’, ‘team_target__’, ‘troll_tigersz_900’, ‘tr_group_900’, and ‘team_target_900’ — are also under scrutiny for spreading similar inflammatory material, police said.

Authorities have urged citizens, especially young social media users, to report suspicious pages and avoid engaging with groups that glorify violence or threaten individuals. Online hate can quickly escalate into real-world harm, and police stress that sharing or promoting such content can attract legal consequences.

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