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Less than one half of the MPs in both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha whose attendance records are publicly available attended at least 90% of the sittings during the budget session of parliament earlier this year, a new study has found. In both houses, the largest parties – the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Indian National Congress – averaged lower sittings in comparison to smaller parties. While in the Lok Sabha, the BJP averaged 26.46 sittings out of 31 and the Congress 23.13, in the upper house too, the ruling party averaged 84.39% attendance and the Congress 80.66%. In comparison, smaller parties performed much better. 

The study, conducted by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) based on attendance data published on the official websites of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, examined records of 483 Lok Sabha MPs and 255 Rajya Sabha MPs across all 31 sittings held in each house between January 28 and April 18, 2026. This included the gap for the Union budget’s mid-session recess and three additional sittings in mid-April to discuss the controversial constituency delimitation legislation. 

The study also notes that since the government’s top leadership, comprising the prime minister, the cabinet ministers and the presiding officers of both the houses, fall outside the ambit of attendance-tracking system used to measure rest of the parliament’s members, since none of them are required to sign the daily attendance register,  provides ample opportunity for evasion of accountability.

Data collection for the “Attendance Record of the Members of Parliament: Budget Session 2026” report was carried out by Aadi Sardesai, a student at Flame University and an intern at CHRI, with analysis and the report authored by CHRI Director Venkatesh Nayak. 

In Lok Sabha, barely a fifth had perfect attendance

The study found that in the Lok Sabha, merely 45.76% of MPs attended between 90% and 100% of the sittings, while a lower threshold of 75% attendance was met by only 309 MPs, or 63.98% of the house. Additionally, 69 MPs were present at less than half of the sittings they were mandated to attend and only a fifth of the house, 101 out of 483 MPs, signed the register for........

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