56 MPs asked no questions in last Lok Sabha: study

New Delhi, March 13 (IANS) As many as 56 MPs - among them former prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee and actor-politicians Dharmendra and Govinda - did not ask a single question during their five-year term, statistics reveal.

The study was conducted by PRS Legislative Research, an independent research initiative, and included both starred and unstarred questions in parliament till December 2008. The 14th Lok Sabha ended last month.

Some high profile leaders whose names figure in the list of MPs who didn't ask any questions are Deve Gowda, Mamata Banerjee, Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Ajit Singh, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rebel Kalyan Singh, Jagdish Tytler and Govinda of the Congress, and BJP's Manavendra Singh and Sandeep Dikshit.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi and BJP veteran Atal Bihari Vajpayee also figure in this list of MPs - who make up over 10 percent of the Lok Sabha's total strength.

'Besides, 67 MPs asked 10 or less than 10 questions during their entire term in the present Lok Sabha,' the research revealed.

'Nearly 89,000 questions, which includes the same questions asked by different leaders, were asked during the present term.'

'The highest number of questions - 1,255 - were asked by Shiv Sena leader Anandrao Vithoba Adsul, who is MP from Buldhana in Maharashtra, followed by Shiv Sena MP Shivaji Adhalrao Patil (1,251 questions),' the study said.