Of all the political parties represented in the Lok Sabha, the Members of Parliament (MPs) of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) clocked the highest average attendance in the 17th Lok Sabha, according to an analysis by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR). The lowest average attendance was that of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MPs.
Notably, the 17th Lok Sabha saw the fewest sittings among all full-term Lok Sabhas to date. Only four previous Lok Sabhas have had fewer sittings but these were dissolved before completing five-year terms.
It was also the first Lok Sabha where a deputy speaker was not elected. Article 93 of the Indian Constitution says that the Lok Sabha must elect a Speaker and a Deputy Speaker “as soon as may be”.
The ADR released the ‘Analysis of Performance of MPs in the 17th Lok Sabha’ on Tuesday based on the performance and attendance of the 521 sitting members, ex-members, and the Anglo-Indian nominated members.
The analysis showed that three MPs from TDP attended 229 sittings on an average out of the total 273. They were Jayadev Galla from Guntur, Kesineni Srinivas from Vijayawada and Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu from Srikakulam.
The TDP was followed by the MPs of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Janata Dal (United) with an average attendance of 226 and 218 sittings respectively.
The CPI(M) has three Lok Sabha MPs and JD(U) has 16.
On an average, 559 MPs (including those elected to the LS in bypolls) from all parties attended 189 sittings.
The data also showed that AAP MPs clocked the lowest average attendance.
The two MPs of the party considered for the survey, Bhagwant Mann from Sangrur and Sushil Kumar Rinku from Jalandhar, attended 57 sittings on an average out of 273 during the 17th Lok Sabha.
It was followed by Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) with 87 sittings on average and Samajwadi Party (SP) with 126 sittings. SAD has three MPs namely Harsimrat Kaur Badal from Bathinda, Simranjit Singh Mann from Sangrur and Sukhbir Singh Badal from Ferozpur.
Simranjit was elected to the Parliament after the Sangrur seat was left vacant due to
Bhagwant Mann’s elevation as the chief minister of Punjab.
Six MPs of the SP were considered for the analysis. These were Shafiqur Rahman Barq from Sambhal, ST Hasan from Moradabad, Mulayam Singh Yadav from Mainpuri, Dimple Yadav from Mainpuri, Akhilesh Yadav from Azamgarh and Mohammad Azam Khan from Rampur.
Barq passed away in February this year at the age of 94.
Azam Khan, meanwhile, had vacated his Rampur seat after being elected to state assembly in March 2022. He was later disqualified as MLA after his conviction in a hate speech case.
Mainpuri’s seat fell vacant after Mulayam Yadav’s death on October 10, 2022. Dimple Yadav was later elected from the seat in December of that year.
The analysis also showed that the 306 MPs of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) attended 191 sittings of the 17th Lok Sabha on average. Fifty-four MPs from the Indian National Congress (INC) attended 206 sittings on average.
The sittings of the 17th Lok Sabha were held between June 17, 2019 and February 10, 2024. During all the sittings, a total of 240 bills were introduced in the Lok Sabha. Out of these 222 were passed, 11 bills were withdrawn and 6 bills remain pending. 1 bill was assented to.
The MPs asked most questions related to the ministry of Health and Family Welfare (6602), followed by Agriculture and Farmers Welfare (4642), Railways (4317), Finance (4122) and Education (3359).
Party-wise average attendance
Chart 1: Highest
Chart 2: Lowest
Source: ADR’s Analysis of Performance of MPs in the 17th Lok Sabha
First Published: Mar 26 2024 | 4:36 PM IST
