During elections, political surprises are almost inevitable.

In a recent press conference at the bungalow of his party’s state president, Raghunath Jha, Prime Minister Chandrashekhar, who leads the Samajwadi Janata Party, was asked why several of his cabinet colleagues were deserting him ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. When informed that Ms. Usha Singh and Mulayam Singh Yadav had resigned, the Prime Minister asked Jha if the news was true. Jha replied that he had only seen it on television. Yadav, present at the conference, assured the Prime Minister of his support.

In 2020, during the Bihar Assembly elections, Tejashwi Prasad Yadav held a press conference at Maurya Hotel to release the list of Grand Alliance candidates and the manifesto. VIP chief Mukesh Sahni, who was expected to be announced as the deputy chief minister candidate, was left out. Shocked, Sahni left the venue in protest, later joining the BJP and securing the Simri Bakhtiarpur seat, with his party winning four seats.

Similarly, in the 2014 Assembly elections, BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi arranged a helicopter to bring Renu Devi, then an Industries Minister with JDU, and her husband Vijay Kushwaha to Patna. Renu Devi subsequently resigned from the cabinet and joined BJP on the same day. Around the same period, two senior Congress leaders, Ramjatan Sinha and Ashok Chaudhury, deserted the party—Sinha joining BJP and Chaudhury returning to Congress.

Political defections are not new. In 1977, Jagat Prakash Nadda, then a student, campaigned for Ramakant Pandey in Baniyapur constituency after his father, Dr. Narayan Lal Nadda, sought a Janata Party ticket for him. Lalu Prasad Yadav, then a nominee of JP in the election committee, recommended Pandey’s candidature, who went on to win the seat.

From the 1970s to present day, Bihar’s political landscape has been shaped by sudden defections, strategic alliances, and unexpected realignments, reflecting the unpredictable nature of elections in the state.