MPs in fray in Phase 1 had varying attendance record

New Delhi, April 10 (IANS) As voting begins on Thursday to elect a new Lok Sabha, data on the participation of outgoing members of the lower House of Parliament shows that some parliamentarians had a very good attendance record, with Telugu Desam Party (TDP) member Gajapathi Raju Pusapati attending every session of the 16th Lok Sabha.

Apart from the TDP MP, others who attended most number of sessions included the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members Rajendra Agrawal (Meerut) - 98 per cent, Mahesh Sharma (Gautam Buddh Nagar) - 97 per cent and Satya Pal Singh (Baghpat) - 96 per cent, according to a data shared by PRS Legislative Research.

Both Sharma and Singh are Union Ministers.

It said that 11 of the 53 sitting candidates contesting in the first phase had less than 75 per cent attendance.

YSR Congress Party's S.P.Y. Reddy (Nandyal) attended the least number of sessions (13 per cent) followed by the TDP's Sambasiva Rayapati Rao (Narasaraopet) at 38 per cent and his colleague Naramalli Sivaprasad (Chittoor) with 45 per cent.

All the three are from Andhra Pradesh.

A total of 14 outgoing MPs attended over 90 per cent of Parliament sessions, out of which nine were from the BJP, three from the TDP and one each from the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and the Congress.

In terms asking questions in the Parliament, Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM)'s Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi was the most active member, with a total of 737 questions, even as he attended 82 per cent of total sessions. He participated in 64 debates and moved two private member's bills.

He was followed by TRS' Vinod Kumar Boinapally (Karimnagar), who asked 553 questions, BJP's Ashok Mahadeorao Nete (Gadchiroli-Chimur) 536 questions and TDP's Jayadev Galla (Guntur) asked 496 questions.

While Boinapally attended 77 per cent of sessions and moved 10 private member's bills, Nete attended 75 per cent of sessions and moved four bills, and Galla attended 85 per cent of sessions and moved six bills. They participated in 106, 20 and 120 debates, respectively.

The worst-faring candidates in terms of asking questions include Trinamool Congress member Dasrath Tirkey (Alipurduar) and YSR Congress' S.P.Y. Reddy, who did not ask a single question and attended 67 per cent and 13 per cent of sittings, respectively.

The 53 outgoing MPs contesting in the first phase include 21 legislators of the BJP, 10 of the TDP, eight of the TRS, two of the Congress, two of the Shiv Sena and one each of the Trinamool, Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen, Biju Janata Dal, Communist Party of India-Marxist, Lok Janshakti Party and the Nationalist Congress Party.

Those who did not sign the attendance register, ask questions, or introduce private member bills include eight BJP ministers, one former BJP Minister (Sanjeev Balyan) and one former TDP Minister (Ashok Gajapathi Raju). Hence data for them was not available.