Profile of new MPs of 18th Lok Sabha: farmers to entrepreneurs, activists to lawyers, doctors to actors

From cardiologists and professors to actors and cricketers, the 18th Lok Sabha which convenes for the first time on Monday accounts for a wide range of professions among the newly-elected MPs. The number of MPs who have declared their professions as social workers, farmers and business people, however, has declined in comparison to the 17th Lok Sabha.

An analysis of professions of the MPs in the 17th and 18th Lok Sabha, the information for which is available on the Lok Sabha website, shows that agriculture, social service and business continue to be the top professions. Several MPs have multiple professions listed in their Lok Sabha profile. While the 17th Lok Sabha had seen altogether 559 MPs — including those who won through bypolls — the 18th Lok Sabha has 542 elected members, with a bypoll pending in Wayanad after its MP Rahul Gandhi vacated it to retain his second seat, Rae Bareli.

Agriculture, a sector that represents the largest chunk of the electorate and covers the largest geographical area of the country, has maintained its highest representation in the House at 179 MPs or 33% of total House strength. However, there has been an 8 percentage point decline compared to the previous Lok Sabha, which had 230 MPs, or 41.14%, associated with agriculture as a profession.

Among the five parties with the most MPs, the BJP has the most members involved in agriculture at 79 out of its total 240 MPs, followed by the Congress at 29 out of 99, the Samajwadi Party (SP) at 23 of 37, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) at two of 29, and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) at nine of 22.

In the 17th Lok Sabha, 148 BJP MPs had declared agriculture as their profession, followed by 16 from the Congress, seven from the DMK, six from the SP, and