While the other Mumbai MPs keep to spending money, some of them stand out for arguments and inquiries

In the previous Lok Sabha, members from the Mumbai area were either members of the Shiv Sena or the Bharatiya Janata Party. Which one you chose didn’t matter as long as it was saffron in hue.
In 2014 and 2019, BJP and Sena candidates won all 10 of the region’s seats as a consequence of the Modi wave. Candidates in Mumbai North, Thane, and Kalyan defeated their closest rivals by a margin of more than 3 lakh votes in 2019, with an average margin of victory over one lakh votes.

What was the overall result? Did these MPs support the issues that Mumbaikars found most important? During discussions and debates in Parliament, did they participate vocally? Did they meticulously keep track of attendance and inquire about the progress of projects being worked on in the city from other ministries? When they started work under the MPLAD plan, which provides them a budget of Rs 25 crore to use over five years, did they keep the public’s concerns in mind?
As is often the case with anything involving politicians, the answer is both yes and no.

A significant number of Members of Parliament, including Gopal Shetty, Rahul Shewale, Manoj Kotak, Kapil Patil, and Arvind Samant, consistently attended the House, with over 90% of them doing so. The Shiv Sena’s Rajan Vichare, Rajendra Gavit, and Gajanan Kirtikar, who missed about one-third of the meetings, were at the opposite extreme of the spectrum.
When it came to taking part in parliamentary discussions, the majority of the MPs that attended in large numbers, including Shewale, Sawant, and Shetty, were definitely more noticeable than the rest. A few, such as Mumbai North-Central MP Poonam Mahajan, who took part in only seven debates throughout the five-year period, were hardly able to say anything. Her attendance rate, nevertheless, was a commendable 86%.
On two tests, however, the majority of MPs performed well. The first is using the questions that lawmakers are allowed to ask the government to get information. A few of them would have been starred questions, selected by a lottery and addressed on the floor of Parliament by the relevant minister. An MP who asks a starred question also has the right to follow up with the minister on the same topic.
The remaining inquiries are classified as unstarred inquiries, to which the government merely provides written responses. Kirtikar and Shrikant Shinde had the highest scores out of the ten, while the MP from Bhiwandi had the lowest.
Ultimately, regarding the allocation of cash obtained under the MPLAD programme, every Mumbai MP suggested several projects for their own districts. The majority of them dedicated a significant portion of their funding to establishing restrooms and health facilities for the treatment of COVID during the epidemic, as well as public health and sanitation. They also paid attention to roads and water supply infrastructure.