With the electoral battle lines drawn and candidates slogging it out to outdo one another, the sitting MLAs who are contesting again can bank on the edge they have over others for raising the voice of the people in the House.
The performance in the 13th legislative assembly of Himachal Pradesh (2018-2022) definitely deserves mention as it exhibits the performance the legislators put up during the Assembly sessions held during their tenure in the last five years.
As many as 55 sitting MLAs from the BJP, the Congress, the CPM and independents are in the electoral fray once again.
A performance card that show how each individual MLA fared in the assembly sessions has been released by National Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) ahead of the assembly election.
Of the 68 sitting MLAs, only 60 asked questions while the total number of questions during the assembly sessions is 8,069.
The highest number of 482 questions was asked by Congress MLA from Kinnaur constituency Jagat Singh Negi followed by 368 questions by Congress MLA Mohan Lal Brakta (Rohru constituency), 334 questions by CPM MLA Rakesh Singha (Theog), 291 Questions by Congress MLA Ram Lal Thakur (Sri Naina Deviji) and 289 questions were asked by BJP MLA Ramesh Dahawla (Jawalamukhi).
In 2018, a total 1,456 questions were asked and 15 bills were passed, in 2019, questions asked were 1,817 and 20 bills passed, 1,570 questions were asked and 14 bills were passed in 2020 whereas in 2021 the number of questions asked was 1,909 while five bills were passed. In 2022, 1,317 questions were asked while no bill was introduced.
Of the questions asked, the highest number of 1,073 was related to Public Works Department followed by 751 related to Jal Shakti Vibhag, 699 to Health and Family Welfare, 508 Higher Education, 422 Multi-Purpose Projects and Power, 338 Revenue Department, 331 Transport, 307 Elementary education , 269 Forest , 253 Agriculture , 234 Home department, 214 Horticulture, 212 Rural development, 207 Urban development and 204 Industries department.
A total 54 bills were tabled in the assembly and all of them were passed. 15 bills were passed in 2018, 20 Bills in 2019, 14 Bills in 2020 and five in 2021. 16 and 13 bills were passed on a single day each, 12 bills in two days, six, two and five Bills were passed in three, four and five days respectively. The least questions asked were by Rajeev Bindal (BJP) only 7.
Following is the list of legislators with number of questions they asked during the assembly session:
Inder Singh (BJP) 114 questions, Dhani Ram Shandil (Congress)169, Anil Sharma (BJP) 39, Anirudh Singh (Congress) 231, Arjun Singh (BJP) 97, Arun Kumar (BJP) 146, Ashish Butail (Congress) 182, Balbir Singh (BJP) 147, Balbir Singh Verma (BJP) 213, Bhawani Singh Pathnia (Congress) 25, Bikram Jaryal (BJP) 187, Harshwardhan Chauhan (Congress) 143, Hira Lal (BJP) 141, Hoshyar Singh (BJP) 111, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal (Congress)154, Inder Singh (BJP) 138, Jawahar Thakur (BJP) 75, J R Katwal (BJP) 40, Jia Lal (BJP) 93, Kishori Lal (BJP) 134, Lakhwinder Singh Rana (BJP) 195, Mukesh Agnihotri (Congress) 166, Mulk Raj (BJP) 89, Nand Lal (Congress) 156, Narinder Bragta (BJP) 34, Narinder Thakur (BJP) 166, Parmjeet Singh (BJP) 66, Pawan Kumar Kajal (166), Pawan Nayyar (BJP) 123, Prakash Rana (BJP) 111, Rajesh Thakur (BJP) 56, Rajinder Garg (BJP Minister) 44, Rajinder Rana (Congress) 176, Rakesh Jamwal 132, Rakesh Pathania (BJP Minister) 21, Ravinder Kumar (BJP) 37, Rohit Thakur (Congress) 111, Sanjay Awasthi (Congress) 62, Satpal Singh Raizada (Congress) 116, Subhash Thakur (BJP) 91, Sukh Ram (BJP Minister)128, Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu (Congress) 132, Sunder Singh Thakur (Congress) 115, Surender Shourie (BJP) 180, Suresh Kashyap (BJP) 46, Vikramaditya Singh (Congress) 186, Vinay Kumar (Congress) 267, Vinod Kumar (BJP)121, Virbhadra Singh (Congress) 49, Vishal Nehria (BJP) 51, Asha Kumari (Congress) 168, Kamlesh Kumari (BJP) 84, Reena Kashyap (BJP) 40, Reeta Devi (BJP) 34.
The performance card was released in an RTI reply filed with the Assembly Secretariat of Himachal Pradesh asking for information pertaining to the performance of the MLAs and the legislative assembly.