Ahead of the upcoming elections in Karnataka, the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) released a report on the performance of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly which sat only for 25 days per year between 2018 and 2023.
ADR and Karnataka Election Watch (KEW) had filed RTIs to the Karnataka Assembly Secretariat asking for the information pertaining to the performance of the MLAs and the Legislative Assembly. Based on the data received, the report said that a total of 150 sitting were held and the longest session was the 12th session, from 14th February, 2022 to 30th March, 2022.
Performance of MLAs
Their analysis of the performance of MLAs revealed that Janata Dal (Secular) [JD(S)] leader KS Lingesh and Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Channappa Mallappa Nimbannavar attended all 150 sittings while BJP leaders GB Jyothiganesh and Sanjeeva Matandoor attended 149 of 150 sittings.
The report also showed that the JD(S) topped the party-wise attendance category with its MLAs attending 107 days, followed by BJP (99), Congress (95) and Independents (93). A total of 214 bills were tabled in the 15th Karnataka Assembly, out of which 202 (94 per cent) were passed.
On average, an MLA from Karnataka Assembly (including MLAs elected through bypolls) asked 116 questions -- with Haris, Yashavanthrayagouda Patil from Congress, Umanatha Kotian from BJP, H D Revanna from JD(S) and S N Narayana Swamy from Congress featuring in the top five leaders who asked the most questions.
The highest number of questions asked in the assembly were related to general administration, finance/revenue, social welfare, education, and Jal Shakti Vibhag, it mentioned.
Meanwhile, Leader of Opposition Siddaramaiah, asked ‘zero’ questions and recorded an attendance of only 30 per cent in the total 150 sittings held. He was ranked 236 on the performance of MLAs with Haris from Congress featuring on the top.
Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president D K Shivakumar recorded an attendance of 39 per cent and only asked 24 questions. Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai recorded an attendance of only 24 per cent and asked 70 questions, the report said.
