Nusrat Jahan to Sunny Deol, 4 MPs who had the lowest attendance in Lok Sabha in 2022
Celebs in real life are different from reel life. Voicing concerns of the people in front of the camera is different from doing it in the Parliament.
In fact, in most cases, celebs as Parliamentarians have hardly done any good when they have been elected by the people. Barring some, majority of the celebrities who are elected by the people on the basis of their popularity end up doing almost nothing.
The popular examples are Bollywood actors Dharmendra and Govinda. Both of them, who entered the Lok Sabha in 2004 as a respected lawmakers came out of politics within no time realising that it wasn’t their cup of tea. Low attendance, zero questions and a no interest in the issues of the people made them quit politics forever.
During 2019 Lok Sabha elections several big names entered the Parliament, but, three years down the line, a big question mark arises on the work they have done.
Though few of the celebs have registered decent attendance, many of them have failed to even appear in important Parliament sessions.
Here are 4 such MPs:
1. Sunny Deol: Ajay Singh Dharmendra Deol, popularly known as Sunny Deol, has produced a flopshow as a lawmaker in the past three years. On the footsteps of his father, Deol, who won on a BJP ticket from the Gurdaspur seat against Congress’s Sunil Jakhar (who is himself is now in the BJP), has recorded zero attendance in the last three sessions of Parliament.
- According to the data by PRS, a non-governmental research agency in New Delhi, Sunny Deol has an attendance of 21% in the Lok Sabha till now. In the past three years, the 65-year-old politician has not participated in any debate and has raised only one question in March, 2020 on the illegal sand mining in rivers.
- Deol, infact, had made his intentions clear in 2019 only when he appointed Gurpreet Singh Palheri as his representative right after he took oath as an MP. He appointed Palheri to attend meeting and follow important matters.
- Deol, on the other hand, is busy in the shooting of the sequel of his blockbuster movie Gadar, which is expected to release in August 2023. So, it must be assumed that the actor will be absent from the Parliament for considerable time.
2. Hans Raj Hans: The Punjabi singer who won on his maiden election on a BJP ticket from North-West Delhi, also has negligible presence in the Lok Sabha. The 60-year-old singer-turned-politician had a great show on his first day when he quoted Urdu couplets and got applauds from all the Parliamentarians.
- But that was all. After that, people never got to see the poetic style of Hans Raj Hans in the Parliament. According to PRS Legislative Research numbers, Hans Raj Hans has recorded 41% attendance in the Lok Sabha in the past three years.
- The Punjabi singer partcipated in only three debates in 2019. He raised 15 questions in the Lok Sabha, and almost all of them were in 2019 and one question in Feburuary 2020.
- Since then, Hans Raj Hans be silent. In the winter session of Pariament in 2022, Hans had 31% attendance. It would be interesting to see whether the Punjabi politician would continue his political journey in 2024 or will go back to singing.
3. Nusrat Jahan: The Bengali actress schocked everyone she was picked by West Bengal CM as a Lok Sabha candidate from the Basirhat constituency. Not only did Nusrat won the seat, she won it with the second biggest margin in the state. After the win, she had said that she would observe regular attendance in the Parliament.
- However, Nusrat went back on her own statement recording a low attendance turnout of 28% from June 2019 to March 2020.
- At present, Nusrat’s attendance, as per PRS stands at 22% against the national average of 79% and state average of 66%. Nusrat did not introduce any private member Bill and participated in only 11 discussions.
4. Mimi Chakraborty: Another Bengali actress who got unexpected victory from the Jadvapur seat in 2019 has been absent from Parliament like her counterpart Nusrat Jahan. The 33-year-old Tollywood actress has had a poor attendance in the lower house of Parliament from the start.
- Data from PRS shows that Mimi’s Lok Sabha attendance is 24% against the National average of 79%. In fact, the celeb Parliamentarians from West Bengal have fared low in attendance in the lower house since 2019.
- Most surprisingly, Mamata Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee has a dismal attendance of 13%. He has participated in only 2 debates.
- In fact, amongst the celebrities, Kirron Kher, Gautam Gambhir, Manoj Tiwari and Ravi Kishan have a decent attendance nearly over 60% in the Parliament.
- With the next General Elections just a year away, MPs with low attendance might have a hard time in bargainng for a second term from their parties, and even if they do so, getting the popular vote might be difficult.
