The Rajasthan legislative assembly. Photo: Official website
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The Election Commission has announced elections to five state legislative assemblies in November 2023. These states are Chhattisgarh (CG), Madhya Pradesh (MP), Mizoram (MZ), Rajasthan (RJ), and Telangana (TS). This article looks at the functioning of these state assemblies during their current terms, i.e., between 2019 and 2023.
Rajasthan met the most, Telangana the least over five years
- Rajasthan did not elect a Deputy Speaker through its term. Madhya Pradesh has not had a Deputy Speaker since March 2020 when it witnessed a change in government.
- All five state assemblies met less than 30 days a year. In 2020, Madhya Pradesh held six sittings.
- The longest sitting across states (Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, and Rajasthan) lasted for 14 hours in Chhattisgarh, when a no-confidence motion was discussed on July 21, 2023.
- In four of the five states (for which long-term data is available), sittings have reduced over time. In their first 10 years, the Rajasthan Assembly, on average, met for 59 days a year, while the MP Assembly met for 48 days a year. In the last 10 years, the average annual sitting days have declined to 29 in Rajasthan and 21 in MP. Telangana had its highest sittings in 2017 – 37 days; however, in every year since then, it met for less than 20 days.
- A session of an Assembly begins when the Governor issues summons, and ends when the Governor issues a notice of prorogation. In Rajasthan and Telangana, sessions were adjourned but not prorogued, therefore lasting several months, with long breaks between sittings. For instance, in 2021 and 2022, in Rajasthan, sessions that began in February ended in September. About 80% of the sittings in each of these years were held in February and March, and the rest in September.
About half of all Bills passed within a day of introduction
- 48% of Bills were considered and passed by these Assemblies within a day of their introduction, i.e., on the same day or the day after introduction. Mizoram passed 57 Bills during its current term, all on the same day or the day after introduction.
- In a single six hour sitting in 2020, the Chhattisgarh Assembly passed 14 Bills. 13 Bills were introduced and passed over two days in MP in 2022. Both sittings together lasted for five hours.
Madhya Pradesh issued 39 Ordinances over five years
- Between 2019 and 2023, Madhya Pradesh issued 39 Ordinances, followed by Telangana (14), and Rajasthan(13). States may issue Ordinances, when the Assemblies are not in session. In MP, in 2020, 11 ordinances were issued, when the Assembly met for only six days. Of these, six lapsed without being replaced by Bills. Ordinances issued increased to 14 in 2021, when the Assembly met for 20 days.
On average, states discussed budgets for seven days before passing
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- One-third of the time was spent on discussing the overall budget. The rest was spent on discussing and voting on the expenditure by various departments.
- In Mizoram, the demands of all departments were discussed and voted on in the House. In other states, all demands may not be discussed every year. Unlike Parliament, none of the five states have Committees to scrutinise departmental expenditure in detail.
MLAs from Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh had 83% attendance…
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Note: Data on attendance is not available for Mizoram and Telangana; *Attendance data for Rajasthan is available only till 2022; Attendance refers to the average for the entire term.
- The average attendance in these three states was 83% over five years. In Chhattisgarh, attendance of MLAs remained between 87% and 90% across all years. In Madhya Pradesh, average attendance was 92% in 2019, but was below 80% in subsequent years. In Rajasthan, attendance averaged around 85% from 2019 to 2021, but dropped to 67% in 2022.
- 17 MLAs from Madhya Pradesh, and two MLAs from Chhattisgarh had 100% attendance.
… And asked more than 100 questions on average
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- Questions receive oral or written responses. Of the questions listed for oral responses by the Minister, only 2% were answered orally in Madhya Pradesh, and 10% in Chhattisgarh. Questions that cannot be answered orally are given written responses.
- The Rajasthan Assembly’s Rules of Procedure allow members to ask a limited number of questions (for written responses) between sessions. However, for the last three years, sessions have lasted for almost an entire year in Rajasthan. More than 200 questions were asked between sessions held in 2019 and 2020. Since then, only four such questions have been asked.
In Madhya Pradesh, on average, men asked twice as many questions as women
- 17% of members in Chhattisgarh are women. This proportion is 13% in Rajasthan and less than 10% in Madhya Pradesh. Female members have higher average attendance than male members in Chhattisgarh, but lower in other states. In Rajasthan (where data is available), the average participation of male and female members in debates is almost equal.
- In Madhya Pradesh, women MLAs asked only 4% of the total questions, despite comprising about 10% of the Assembly. In other states, the number of questions asked by women MLAs is proportionate to their representation in the Assembly.
This article was originally published by PRS Legislative Research.
