Last month, the President nominated four eminent personalities — P.T. Usha, Ilaiyaraaja, Veerendra Heggade and V. Vijayendra Prasad — to the Rajya Sabha. Article 80(3) of the Constitution states that nominees shall consist of persons with special knowledge or practical experience in literature, science, art, and social service. The recent nominations also reflect a southern push by the Modi government. An analysis of the performance of previously nominated MPs across attendance, questions raised, debates participated and private member Bills introduced shows that most of them lag behind the national average. The analysis is restricted to those MPs who are serving or retired in or after June 2009. The data was sourced from PRS Legislative Research.
Attendance levels
The chart shows the attendance (in %) of nominated RS MPs. The average attendance of all RS MPs since 2009 is 79%. The attendance of 20 nominated RS MPs was below the 79% mark. Actor Rekha (5%), cricketer Sachin Tendulkar (8%), and former CJI Ranjan Gogoi (25%) attended the least. Six nominated MPs had less than 50% attendance.
