From Yamini Jadhav of the Shiv Sena Shinde faction in Maharashtra to BJP’s Tapas Roy in West Bengal, from Pradeep Yadav of the Congress in Jharkhand to BJP’s Jyothi Mirdha in Rajasthan, nine of the 13 turncoat candidates or their family members being probed by investigative agencies, lost in the Lok Sabha elections whose results were declared Tuesday (June 4).
Of these nine who lost, as many as seven belonged to the BJP or its allies.
There were more than 150 turncoats — politicians who shifted from one political party to another — in the fray in the elections that concluded on Saturday. Of these, 13 candidates or their family members are facing probes either by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the Income Tax Department or the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
Of the 13, eight had switched sides to the BJP — seven from Congress and one from Trinamool Congress; two had switched sides to the Shiv Sena Shinde faction from the Shiv Sena, one switched to TDP from YSRCP; and two to Congress from the Jharkhand Vikas Party and PEP, respectively.
Kolkata Uttar BJP candidate Tapas Roy. (Express file photo by Shashi Ghosh)
Of the eight under agency scanner who joined the BJP, six lost the polls; of the two who joined Sena’s Shinde faction, one lost; and one each from the Jharkhand Vikas Party and PEP who had joined the Congress also lost.
Among the prominent turncoats who lost are Jyoti Mirdha from Nagaur in Rajasthan; Kripashankar Singh from Jaunpur in UP; Roy from Kolkata Uttar; Kothapalli Geeta from Araku in Andhra Pradesh; Preneet Kaur from Patiala; and Geeta Koda from Singhbhum in Jharkhand.
From the Shiv Sena Shinde faction, Yamini Jadhav lost the polls from Mumbai South, while from Congress Pradeep Yadav lost from Godda in Jharkhand.
Former Congress leader Jyoti Mirdha had joined the BJP in September, 2023, with about six months to go for the Lok Sabha polls. Months earlier, the Enforcement Directorate had initiated a probe against Indiabulls based on a complaint by the Shipra Group. Indiabulls is run by Mirdha’s in-laws—Indiabulls promoter Sameer Gehlaut is the brother of Mirdha’s husband Narendra Gehlaut.
Shiv Sena (UBT) candidate from South Mumbai constituency Arvind Sawant during a roadshow in Mumbai on Tuesday; (right) Shinde Sena’s Yamini Jadhav campaigning in South Mumbai. (Express photo by Ganesh Shirsekar)
Former Mumbai Congress chief Kripashankar Singh was facing a probe in a case of disproportionate assets by the Maharashtra Anti Corruption Bureau in 2012. The ED initiated a probe based on the ACB case. In February 2018, Singh was discharged by a court because of lack of sanction. In 2019, he resigned from the Congress and joined the BJP in 2021.
The Enforcement Directorate raided the residence of Trinamool chief whip in West Bengal Assembly in January this year in connection with a case of money laundering concerning alleged irregularities in civic body recruitments. Early March, Tapas Roy joined the BJP and was fielded from Kolkata Uttar by the BJP. However, he lost to TMC’s Sudeep Bandopadhyay.
In the 2019 polls, Geeta Koda, wife of former Jharkhand CM Madhu Koda, was the only Congress candidate who won from the state. As her husband stands convicted in one of the many cases registered against him by the CBI and ED and probes in others continue, she joined the BJP in February this year and was fielded from her stronghold Singhbhum. She, however, lost to the JMM candidate.
In Andhra Pradesh, former YSRCP MP Kothapalli Geetha and her husband P Ramakoteswara Rao were booked and chargesheeted by CBI in 2015 for allegedly duping the Punjab National Bank by defaulting on a Rs 42-crore loan they got by misrepresenting facts.
In July 2019, Geetha joined the BJP. But in September 2022, she was convicted by the trial court and sentenced to five years imprisonment along with her husband. They were both arrested by the CBI. The couple soon got relief with the Telangana HC not only granting them bail but also suspending the sentence. However, since the conviction continued to stand, Geetha could not contest.
On March 12, Telangana HC cleared the way by staying the conviction as well. On March 28, BJP announced she was the party candidate from Araku constituency. She, however, lost the polls to YSRCP’s Gumma Rani.
Former Congress leader and Punjab CM Captain Amarinder Singh’s wife Preneet Kaur was fielded by the BJP from Patiala. Their son Raninder Singh came under the ED scanner in 2020 in connection with a case of forex violations. In November, 2021 Amarinder Singh quit the Congress. The very next year he joined the BJP. Kaur stood third behind Congress’s Dharamvir Gandhi and AAP’s Balbir Singh.
In Maharashtra, Shiv Sena’s Yamini Jadhav had walked out of the party to join the Eknath Shinde faction in June, 2022, toppling the Uddhav Thackeray government in the state. Yamini along with her husband Yashwant Jadhav was then facing ED investigations in multiple cases. Yamini was fielded from Mumbai South by the NDA in these polls but lost to Shiv Sena UBT’s Arvind Sawant.
Shiv Sena veteran Ravindra Waikar had stuck with Uddhav Thackeray during the political upheaval in Maharashtra in June 2022. However, the new Eknath Shinde-led NDA government in Maharashtra soon opened a probe against him by Mumbai police’s economic offences wing which was followed by an ED probe. This March, Waikar walked into the Shinde camp saying he had to make a choice between going to jail and switching parties. He was fielded from Mumbai North West and barely scraped through, winning by just 48 votes.
Congress’s Pradeep Yadav, who contested from Jharkhand, had no such luck. Raided by ED last year, he lost the polls to BJP’s Nishikant Dubey. He had moved to Congress from JVP. Congress candidate from Punjab’s Sangrur Sukhpal Singh Khaira, who had joined the party from Punjab Ekta Party, was also facing ED probe but lost.
There were others like Waikar who won despite being under the shadow of agencies and changing sides. Prominent among them was Naveen Jindal, who switched from Congress to the BJP months ahead of polls, winning from the Kurukshetra constituency. Chargesheeted in the coal blocks allocation case, Jindal had been raided by ED in a fresh case months ahead of him joining the BJP.
Similarly, former TDP Rajya Sabha MP CM Ramesh, who had joined the BJP in 2019 following Income Tax raids at the premises of a company associated with him, won from Anakapalle in Andhra Pradesh. Even TDP’s Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy, whose son was arrested by ED in the Delhi excise policy case only to be released after turning approver, won from Ongole.
Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducting a search at a TMC MLA's residence earlier in 2024. (Express photo) 
Kolkata Uttar BJP candidate Tapas Roy. (Express file photo by Shashi Ghosh)
Shiv Sena (UBT) candidate from South Mumbai constituency Arvind Sawant during a roadshow in Mumbai on Tuesday; (right) Shinde Sena’s Yamini Jadhav campaigning in South Mumbai. (Express photo by Ganesh Shirsekar)
Share
