MP Attendance Dip: Only 45.7% of Lok Sabha MPs Had 90-100% Attendance in Budget Session
As Parliament prepares for the monsoon session, an analysis of attendance records from the previous budget session reveals that less than half of Lok Sabha members attended at least 90% of sittings. The study, conducted by the NGO Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, examined data from both Houses to identify party-wise trends.
In the Lok Sabha, out of 483 MPs whose attendance was publicly available, only 101 (about 21%) attended all 31 sittings. Overall, 45.7% of MPs had attendance between 90-100%. Smaller parties with fewer MPs recorded the highest average attendance. The Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) achieved 100% attendance. The Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation and Zoram People's Movement followed closely, with their MPs attending 30 out of 31 sittings. The Samajwadi Party averaged 28.43 sittings per MP.
Among larger parties, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), with 191 MPs, averaged 26.46 sittings per MP. The Congress, with 97 MPs, averaged 23.13 sittings. Regional parties with more than 20 MPs, such as the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), had lower averages: 15 and 14.64 sittings respectively.
In the Rajya Sabha, 119 out of 255 MPs (46.6%) attended between 90-100% of sittings. The top 10 parties by attendance were all regional. The Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) recorded 100% attendance with its lone MP. The Jammu and Kashmir National Conference (J&K-NC) averaged 94.62% attendance with three MPs. Parties like Janata Dal (Secular), Mizo National Front, Biju Janata Dal, Samajwadi Party, National People's Party, and Shiv Sena all averaged above 90% attendance. The BJP averaged 84.39% and the Congress 80.66%.
The findings come ahead of the monsoon session, where issues such as the Ram temple and the NEET-UG paper leak are expected to be discussed. The analysis underscores varying levels of parliamentary engagement across parties.
