PT Thomas, who was denied ticket, tops the list of best performing MPs

New Delhi, March 28: A recent survey done by an organisation on the performance of our MPs in last 5 years has brought out some very interesting findings.

The top performer among all the Congress MPs is Advocate PT Thomas, a little known Congress leader from Idukki district in Kerala. He is also the second highest performer among all MPs in the country.

Surprisingly, the Congress-led United Democratic Front in the state denied him a ticket this time, thanks to stiff opposition from Christian organisations, one of the wealthiest groups in Kerala.

The survey was done by Satark Nagrik Sangathan (SNS) on the basis of information obtained under the RTI Act 2005 and official government websites.

In last five years, Thomas had an outstanding attendance rate of 96.81 per cent and asked 466 questions, which is a big number. He was also able to use 78.74 per cent of his MPLAD fund.

The trouble started brewing between Thomas and Christian church in Kerala when Thomas openly endorsed the recommendations of Kasturirangan Committee's report on Western Ghats. Church wanted Centre to issue a notification denotifying 123 villages as ecologically sensitive areas. But Thomas slammed Church's stand in the issue and accused them of having political motives in opposing the green tribunal's recommendations.

Church warned the UDF that it won't support the party if it fields Thomas from Idukki, a district which has a major Christian population. Yielding to the demands, UDF decided to field a young Dean Kuriakose from Idukki.

Rahul Gandhi is ranked 355 among MPs of all parties

Other top performing Congress MPs are R Dhruvanarayana from Chamarajanagar constituency in Karnataka, Kowase Marotrao Sainuji from Gadchiroli-Chimur seat in Maharashtra, Jai Prakash Agarwal from North East Delhi and Ramasubbu S from Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu.

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi is one of the least performing MPs in the country.

He is at number five among the bottom 10 underperformers and is ranked 355 among MPs of all parties.

His attendance rate too is poor - 42.61 per cent. Rahul did not ask even a single question in Lok Sabha during his five years in Parliament, says the survey, while the national average is 300 questions.

Rahul participated only in two debates in the House while the national average is 37.9.

During his five years in parliament, Rahul didn't bring any private members' bill. Around 50 per cent of his MPLAD fund could not be utilised as well.

Oneindia News