India, Nov. 15 -- Reeling from a crushing defeat in the Bihar assembly elections, the Congress is bracing for possible defections among its newly elected MLAs. With only six legislators in the 243-member House, the party is at its most vulnerable as the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is widely believed to be stepping up efforts to engineer a 'Congress-Mukt' Bihar legislature.

Political observers said the NDA, led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Janata Dal (United) [JD(U)], has a history of poaching opposition members to consolidate power, and people within the Congress fear the alliance could go to any length to lure away its fragile cadre of MLAs.

The anxiety stems from the fact that most of these MLAs are recent...