Introduction India’s Anti-Defection Law, introduced through the Tenth Schedule in 1985, aimed to stop the rampant party-switching that had weakened governments in the 1960s and 1970s. However, four decades later, the law has not ended defections but changed how they occur, with partisan Speakers and strategically planned two-thirds mergers turning it from a democratic safeguard into a tool of political consolidation. This essay critically examines that transformation, drawing on...