Having posed the highest number of questions in the 15 Parliament sessions held during the 17th Lok Sabha and spent more funds granted under Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS), Member of Parliament (MP) from Bengaluru South, Tejasvi Surya, has topped performance among three Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MPs in Bengaluru city, revealed an analysis by Bangalore Political Action Committee (B.PAC).
In the 17th Lok Sabha, the lower house worked for 273 days, and P.C. Mohan, Bengaluru Central MP, is ahead of others with 82% attendance. While Mr. Surya’s attendance is 78%, Bengaluru North MP D.V. Sadanand Gowda’s participation is 100 days out of 159 days which is 63%. For Mr. Gowda, the total days are calculated at 159 as he served as Union Cabinet Minister from May 30, 2019, to July 7, 2021, when Ministers did not sign the attendance register in Lok Sabha. The national average attendance of MPs is 79%, and the State average is 71%.
According to the data shared by the B.PAC, Mr. Surya is leading the chart, asking 382 questions in Parliament. Mr. Mohan is lagging behind a little, with 182 questions. Shockingly, Mr. Gowda, who was the former Chief Minister of Karnataka and an ordinary member like the other two for nearly three years during the 2021-2024 period, did not ask a single question in the House.
The data also show that in total, three Bengaluru city MPs have spent ₹55.88 crore under the MPLAD scheme. The MPs spent the highest amount of funds, ₹23.47 crore, on public infrastructure development. The elected representatives spent ₹16.03 crore on drinking water and sanitation and ₹7.27 crore on education. These three areas saw the biggest spending from MPLADS funds.
In terms of MPLADS spending, Mr. Surya has topped the chart, spending ₹19.36 crore. The Assembly constituencies that received the most funding are Basavanagudi (₹4.33 crore) and Jayanagar (₹4.32 crore). Mr. Gowda has spent ₹18.69 crore, and the Yeshvantpur constituency received ₹6 crore. Mr. Mohan’s total spending is pegged at ₹17.79 crore, and the highest fund of ₹3.73 crore is spent on the Chamarajpet Assembly segment.
It must be noted that ₹5 crore per year is allocated to each MP for 5 years. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, MPLADS was suspended from April 6, 2020, to November 9, 2021. This means no funds were allocated for the Financial Year 2020-21. For the Financial Year 2021-2022, ₹2 crore was allocated. This means in the five years, the total allocated fund for each MP stands at ₹17 crore. However, more spending shown in the data is due to the utilisation of unutilised funds in the previous Lok Sabha tenure.
Revathy Ashok, Honorary Managing Trustee, B.PAC, said, “B.PAC has been analysing elected representatives’ participation and MPLADS utilisation for Parliamentary and Assembly constituencies since 2014. We undertake this work to bring elected representatives (MPs/MLAs) 5 years of work during the office to citizens and voters to make informed choices.”
