india-map

FIND YOUR MP

Switch to Hindi (हिंदी)

Applications for LAMP Fellowship 2025-26 are now open. Apply here. The last date for submitting applications is December 21, 2024

  • Legislature
  • Parliament
  • Vital Stats
  • Profile of the newly elected 17th Lok Sabha
PDF

Profile of the newly elected 17th Lok Sabha

The final results for 542 constituencies have just been declared.  Elections to one constituency – Vellore in Tamil Nadu, were postponed.  BJP with 303 seats has retained its position as the single largest party.  In this document, we analyse the profile of the newly elected Members of Parliament of the 17th Lok Sabha.

BJP has the highest representation

  • 397 MPs were elected from national parties.  Of these 303 MPs were from BJP, 52 from Congress, and 22 from TMC.
     
  • Among the state parties DMK (23) and YSRCP (22) won the most seats.

267 first-term MPs in the 17th Lok Sabha[*]

  • 267 MPs will be in Lok Sabha for their first –term.  From the outgoing Lok Sabha,  230 MPs were re-elected.  Further, 45 have been members of earlier Lok Sabhas.*
     
  • The number of MPs re-elected is significantly higher than in the last general election.*

 Fewer MPs over 70 years, more MPs under 40 years

  • The average age of an MP is 54 years.
     
  • The 17th Lok Sabha has 12% of MPs below the age 40 years.  This is more than that of the 16th Lok Sabha which had 8% of MPs below the age of 40 years.
     
  • This bucks the longer term trend of Lok Sabha getting older.  The proportion of MPs below 40 years of age has steadily declined from 26% in the first Lok Sabha.
     
  • On average, women MPs are 6 years younger compared to male MPs in the 17th Lok Sabha

394 MPs have at least Graduate level education

  • In the 17th Lok Sabha, 27% of MPs have studied till 12th class.  In comparison, 16th Lok Sabha had 20% MPs who had studied till 12th class.
     
  • Since 1996, at least 75% of representatives of each Lok Sabha have been graduates.

78 women MPs in the 17th Lok Sabha

  • 716 women candidates contested the General Election.  Out of which, 78 women MPs have been elected to the 17th Lok Sabha.  In 2014, 62 women MPs were elected.
     
  • The representation of women MPs in Lok Sabha is slowly improving from 5% in the 1st Lok Sabha to 14 % in the 17th Lok Sabha.
     
  • Though the percentage of women MPs has increased over the years, it is still lower in comparison to some countries. These include  Rwanda (61%), South Africa (43%), UK (32%), USA (24%), Bangladesh (21%).

Most MPs have declared political and social work as their occupation

  • 39% of MPs have listed their occupation as political and social work.
     
  • 38% are engaged in agricultural activities.  23% MPs are businessmen.
     
  • Only 4% of MPs are lawyers.
     
  • Note: Several MPs have declared more than one occupation.

Sources: The list of MPs is based on information from the Election Commission of India (results.eci.gov.in).  The data on the newly elected MPs has been taken from candidate affidavits collated by Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR), Data on other Parliaments is from Inter Parliamentary Union (http://www.ipu.org/wmne/classif.htm) as on May 24, 2019.  Other data is from the publications and website of Lok Sabha.

 

DISCLAIMER: This document is being furnished to you for your information.  You may choose to reproduce or redistribute this report for non-commercial purposes in part or in full to any other person with due acknowledgement of PRS Legislative Research (“PRS”).  The opinions expressed herein are entirely those of the author(s).  PRS makes every effort to use reliable and comprehensive information, but PRS does not represent that the contents of the report are accurate or complete.  PRS is an independent, not-for-profit group.  This document has been prepared without regard to the objectives or opinions of those who may receive it.

 

[*] Data related to term of an MP was incorrect in the earlier version.  This has been corrected on May 28, 2019.