SP's 16th Lok Sabha Report Card: Dimple Yadav most 'inactive'

New Delhi, Feb 27: With the last session of the 16th Lok Sabha coming to an end on February 13, all the political parties are gearing up for the upcoming Lok Sabha Polls.

It's an apt time to analyse the performance of various political parties' Lok Sabha members.

The Samajwadi Party (SP) is one of the main political parties of Uttar Pradesh, which sends 80 members to the Lok Sabha.

In 2014 General Elections, only five candidates of the SP were elected. Later, the party snatched two Lok Sabha seats from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Current Party patron Mulayam Singh Yadav was elected from Azamgarh Parliamentary seat. Actually, Mulayam had contested from two seats; Mainpuri and Azamgarh and won both the seats. He resigned from Mainpuri seat and his grandnephew Tej Pratap Singh Yadav was elected in the bypoll.

Mulayam's daughter-in-law Dimple Yadav was elected from Kannauj, and his nephews Akshay Yadav and Dharmendra Pratap Yadav bagged Firozabad and Budaun Lok Sabha seats respectively.

Gorakhpur MP Yogi Adityanath and Phulpur MP Keshav Prasad Maurya had resigned after they became Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister respectively in 2017. Later, SP candidate Pravin Kumar Nishad won Gorakhpur seat and Nagendra Pratap Singh Patel was victorious from Phulpur seat.

Here is the performance analysis of the SP MPs during 16th Lok Sabha by PRS Legislative Research on the attendance, debates, questions, and Private Member's Bill parameters.

Overall the SP MP from Budaun Lok Sabha Constituency and nephew of Mulayam was the best all-rounder MP of his party. Kannauj MP Dimple Yadav was most inactive among her party MPs in the 16th Lok Sabha.

SP's 'Attendance' Report Card

Attending all the sessions of the Lok Sabha is one of the most important duties of elected representatives. According to PRS Legislative Research, 80% was the national average attendance during 16th Lok Sabha.

Only four SP MPs crossed the national average attendance.

Phulpur MP Nagendra Pratap Singh Patel was the top performer in this category with 88% attendance. Mainpuri MP Tej Pratap Singh Yadav was on the second spot with 86%, Budaun MP Dharmendra Yadav was on the third spot with 82% attendance, and Azamgarh MP Mulayam's attendance was 81%.

Another nephew of Mulayam, Akshay Yadav's attendance was 69%, and Gorakhpur MP Patel's was 65%. Kannuj MP Dimple Yadav, who is the wife of former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, registered attendance of only 31%.

SP's 'Debate' Report Card

The Members of Parliament hold the government accountable by asking questions and participating in debates in the Parliament. This is also an important parameter to gauge an MP's activeness.

In the 16th Lok Sabha, on an average, an MP participated in 67.1 debates. However, no SP MP crossed the national average of debates.

Among the party MPs, Dharmendra Yadav was the top performer who participated in 65 debates. With participation in 44 debates, Mulayam was runner up. His grandnephew Tej Pratap Singh Yadav took part in 22 debates.

Akshay Yadav, Nagendra Pratap Singh Patel, Dimple Yadav, and Pravin Kumar Nishad participated in 10, 05, 02, and 01 debates respectively.

SP's 'Question' Report Card

The Lok Sabha members have the power to ask ministers questions of public importance to hold the government accountable. This is another parameter to assess the performance of the MPs.

The national average of questions asked by MPs was 292 during the 16th Lok Sabha.

Only Dharmendra Yadav crossed the national average and asked 1055 questions during his stint as Budaun MP. Mainpuri MP Tej Pratap Yadav posed 255 questions.

Neither Mulayam Singh Yadav, nor Dimple Yadav asked a single question during the 16th Lok Sabha.

Akshay Yadav, Nagendra Pratap Singh Patel, and Pravin Kumar Nishad asked 10, 05, and 01 questions respectively.

SP's 'Private Member's Bill' Report Card

Introducing Private Member Bill is an important obligation of an MP. An MP who is not a minister may introduce a Private Member's Bill. These Bills enable MPs to highlight legislative gaps and introduce Bills to address them.

In the 16th Lok Sabha, the national average of Private Member's Bill was 2.3.

Only an SP MP introduced Private Member Bil. Mainpuri MP Tej Pratap Yadav introduced two Private Member Bills.