First-time MPs excel in Parliament, reveals Lok Sabha secretariat data
The data, compiled for 250 debutant members who didn’t become ministers, showed that they asked 41,104 questions
A first-time MP made a whopping 864 interventions in the past four years in the Lok Sabha, another debutant posed 561 questions, while a third lawmaker pushed seven private bills in 11 sessions of this Lok Sabha so far, records show.
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The 17th Lok Sabha has 270 first-time MPs, the highest ever. Many of them have been performing consistently, data available with the Lok Sabha secretariat showed.
The data, compiled for 250 debutant members who didn’t become ministers, showed that they asked 41,104 questions, brought 685 private member’s bills (those brought by the MPs and not the government), and raised 1,908 important issues under House Rule 377.
A number of questions listed by these MPs might not have been replied to by ministers in the House due to disruptions that marred a few sessions, including the budget session of 2023. However, all questions, including those unanswered but listed in the House agenda, get a written reply.
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla has often underlined how all firsttime MPs have participated in the 17th Lok Sabha, creating a new parliamentary record. Parties including the Bharatiya Janata Party, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and Shiv Sena, too, have often encouraged its new members to participate in the proceedings.
On June 2019, Birla extended the Zero Hour and delayed the lunch break in the House from 1pm to 2.30pm to allow more debutant MPs to speak in the House.
Among the first-timers, Kuldeep Rai Sharma, Congress MP from Andaman & Nicobar, has made a total of 864 interventions in the past four years, followed by Sukanta Majumdar of the BJP, who made 588 interventions, including 561 questions, in the Question Hour of the House.
While the Congress lawmaker has intervened the most so far, Lok Sabha data showed that BJP’s debutant MPs are extremely active.
While five of the top 10 first-time MPs are from the BJP, the list also includes also two lawmakers from the Nationalist Congress Party and one from the Shiv Sena.
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Some of the new MPs have also fared well compared to all Lok Sabha MPs.
Sharma is currently second to BJP’s Pushpendra Singh Chandel in terms of overall participation in debates, according to data collected by PRS Legislative Research, an independent non-profit. DNV Senthilkumar S of the DMK, another first-time MP, is fourth in overall participation.
In terms of questions in the Question Hour, the 60-minute slot in which ministers reply to questions of MPs, the BJP’s Majumdar was ahead of all, PRS data showed, followed by NCP’s Supriya Sule. Amol Ramsing Kolhe of the NCP and Sharma of the Congress stood at the 6th and 7th positions.
“I have been an MLA since 1989. I was a minister and chief whip in the SM Krishna government in Karnataka, so I have the experience of legislative processes and procedure,” said BJP’s Raja Amareshwara Naik, the debutant MP who participated 493 times.
“My interventions in Parliament were made on issues I felt the need to raise and it was helpful that the Speaker gave a chance to new members to speak and put forth their views.”
Despite his long tenure as a legislator used to speaking on the floor of the House, Naik found it a challenge to converse in Hindi. “ I can speak in Hindi and English, but fluency (in the languages) was a bit of a challenge,” he said. “Of course, there was an option of speaking in the mother tongue.”
A neurosurgeon-turned-politician, Sujay Vihkhepatil, who speaks extempore, said being conversant in Hindi, English and Marathi made it easier for him to speak in Parliament.
“I have my ears to the ground and when you meet people, hear what they have to say, it makes it easier to raise issues that matter to them. My education also helped me a lot, as I find it easier to grasp issues.”
Chaksu Roy, PRS Legislative Research, hailed increased participation of the new MPs in the Lok Sabha.
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“A trend after every general election is roughly the fifty percent churn in the membership of Lok Sabha. These new MPs often take time to settle into their role. This Lok Sabha has seen that first time MPs hit the ground running in terms of their legislative participation. While MPs need to be credited for this keen interest in the legislative process, the parliamentary institution has also encouraged and catalyses their participation.”