New Delhi: Kangana Ranaut has stormed her way into India’s politics as a BJP contestant in this Lok Sabha election. She is the latest participant in a long continuing trend; stars from across the country have frequently entered the political arena, using their fame to gain political glory, shape agendas and wield influence.
Amitabh Bachchan briefly entered politics in the 1980s, while Shatrughan Sinha and Hema Malini remain active participants. In Tamil Nadu, superstar MG Ramachandran transitioned seamlessly from acting to politics, with the likes of Kamal Haasan and Vijay following suit recently. Actor NT Rama Rao founded the Telugu Desam Party and was the seven-time CM of Andhra Pradesh. West Bengal actors Nusrat Jahan and Mimi Chakraborty made waves when they were elected to Parliament in 2019.
ThePrint has evaluated the performance of eight celebrity MPs – five from the BJP and three from the All India Trinamool Congress – through meticulous analysis of publicly accessible data, including parliamentary attendance records, the nature and volume of questions raised in sessions, and the utilisation of Members of Parliament Local Area Development (MPLAD) funds. It is a comprehensive overview of these MPs’ engagement and effectiveness in their roles.
Hema Malini
She has been fielded for a third time from Mathura, Uttar Pradesh, after emerging victorious in the last two Lok Sabha elections. While the ‘dream girl’ is caught in the public eye now and then, she has attended only 50 per cent of the 17th Lok Sabha sessions. She posed 105 questions, out of which only 58 were raised independently over the last five years.
According to ThePrint’s analysis, almost 90 per cent of Hema Malini’s questions were generic. None of them concerned the implementation of developmental schemes in her own constituency. Even though 75 per cent of her recommended work includes “construction of roads, link roads, pathways, or any other road with or without drainage system,” she directed zero questions at the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. She has already spent more than half of the allocated budget from the MPLAD fund when only 16.6 per cent of the work allocated to her has been completed.
Ravi Kishan Shukla
He will be contesting from Gorakhpur, the bastion of UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. He won this seat in 2019, by a significant margin of 3 lakh votes over Samajwadi Party’s Ram Bhuwal Nishad. The famous Bhojpuri actor has a 68 per cent attendance record in Parliament; better than expected since he has been tremendously active in Telugu and Hindi cinema.
He posed 480 questions in the 17th Lok Sabha session, out of which only 37 were independently raised. About 51.8 per cent of his sanctioned work is still ongoing, and none of it has been completed. Besides, 46 per cent of the works that he recommended for his constituency included the “purchase of smart boards, visual display units, and projectors”, and it’s not known if these purchases were for schools or colleges.
However, out of his total expenditure of Rs 50.31 lakh, 55 per cent has been spent on “lighting public spaces”, which hasn’t yet been accomplished. According to ThePrint’s analysis, he posed 17 questions to the Ministry of Education, although most of them were in tow with other MPs. None of the questions was specific to his constituency but did concern the state of UP. That said, only Rs 17.85 lakh out of the allocated Rs 7.35 crore has been spent on the “construction of rooms and halls in schools and colleges”, which again remains incomplete. Besides, he has done all his spending in 2024. Ninety-eight per cent of his recommended work is also dated to 2024.
Manoj Tiwari
Tiwari received his ticket from the vulnerable Northeast Delhi, securing 53.86 per cent votes in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Tiwari, however, has not spent anything from his MPLAD funds in the last two years. Allocated Rs 9.8 crore, the star leader has not spent any on his constituency. Out of the 42 works recommended for his constituency – in 2024 itself – 44 per cent involved the installation of street lights. With an 85 per cent attendance record in Parliament, he has posed 395 questions, raising only 74 independently and participating in 37 debates over five years.
Just like Hema Malini and Ravi Kishan, none of his questions were specific to his constituency. Although he raised questions on electronics, skill development and agriculture, he hasn’t pushed for anything but a few infrastructure projects in his constituency. Moreover, only six of his recommendations have been sanctioned. It could be because he is the only MP associated with a different governing party.
Dinesh Lal Yadav
Popularly known as ‘Nirahua’, Bhojpuri superstar Dinesh Lal Yadav is a backbencher when it comes to posing questions in Parliament. With over 90 per cent attendance in the 17th Lok Sabha, he has posed only 36 questions, out of which 15 have been raised independently.
However, unlike other leaders, two of Nirahua’s questions concerned his constituency. He enquired about the government’s plans to set up Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendras in Azamgarh and followed up on the implementation of the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY) in UP. He specifically enquired about youth training under DDU-GKY in Azamgarh. However, this enthusiasm isn’t reflected in his plans for his constituency. He has not spent a single rupee from the Rs 4.9 crore allocated to him. Eighty-seven per cent of his sanctioned work is still ongoing, which only includes “lighting of public spaces,” and has been 98 per cent incomplete since 2023. Thirty-six per cent of his allocated funds have been sanctioned only for lighting up public spaces.
Smriti Irani
The former television actor who has been serving as the Minister of Women and Child Development since 2019 has once again secured a ticket from the erstwhile Congress bastion of Amethi. Previously, she defeated Rahul Gandhi by over 55,000 votes. However, ministers like Irani who represent the government in debates, do not have their participation reported by PRS. They don’t sign the attendance register, ask questions, or introduce private member bills.
Out of the allocated Rs 9.8 crore, only Rs 2.08 crore has been spent, mostly on road construction, constituting 93 per cent of Irani’s recommended work. Ironically, she hasn’t designated any funds for women and child welfare in Amethi. All recommended work is dated to April 2024, and all of it is incomplete. About 63.4 per cent of her work that is sanctioned is still ongoing.
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Shatrughan Sinha
Sinha’s term as TMC MP began in 2022, from West Bengal’s Asansol district. His star power won him the constituency by over 3 lakh votes, but the actor-turned-politician hasn’t yet spent a single rupee from his Rs 7.35 crore MPLAD fund. Out of the 84 recommendations he has made since 2023 – such as constructing toilets and building public parks, improving electricity distribution, and constructing buildings for creches and anganwadis – 74 have been sanctioned but none have been completed. Sinha attended 63 per cent of the sessions in the 17th Lok Sabha but failed to ask any questions.
Satabdi Roy
The Bengali actor and film director has won the Birbhum constituency thrice – in 2009, 2014 and 2019. She has hardly spent her Rs 7.35 crore MPLAD budget for the 17th Lok Sabha session, utilising only Rs 65.8 lakh of the total allocated amount. About 46 per cent of this amount has been dedicated to the “construction of roads, link roads, pathways, or any other road with or without drainage system.” Compared to other MPs, 16 per cent of Satabdi’s expenditure has been dedicated to improving health and education infrastructure. About 44.2 per cent of her sanctioned recommendations are still ongoing. All her expenditures have been made in 2024.
Deepak Adhikari
The Bengali movie star (popularly known as Dev) is, perhaps, the biggest face among TMC’s star MPs, and is gearing up to contest from West Bengal’s Ghatal constituency this year. While Dev’s attendance record stood at 12 per cent this session, he posed 106 questions of which 73 were raised independently and four concerned his constituency. The parliamentarian has consistently sought updates on the budget and implementation of the Ghatal Master Plan.
This large-scale flood management programme aims to provide relief to residents of the low-lying areas in and around Ghatal. He also posed an interesting question on the reasons for stalling the renaming of West Bengal, for which a proposal has reportedly been sent. He even urged the central government to increase the MPLAD fund – which, like many of his counterparts within the BJP, he hasn’t utilised much of. Of the Rs 9.8 crore allocated to him, he has spent Rs 44.5 lakh on lighting up public spaces. All of this expenditure has been made in 2024.
According to ThePrint’s report card, both BJP and Opposition MPs have prioritised construction activities, sidelining sectors like education, women and child development, and healthcare. And their parliamentary engagement doesn’t seem to align with their expenditure either. Apart from Hema Malini, who spent 25 per cent of her funds in 2023, and Shatrughan Sinha and Nirahua Yadav who didn’t utilise their budget, all MPs spent their funds in 2024, shortly ahead of the Lok Sabha election.