Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar had to suspend the Question Hour on November 30 when as many as 34 MPs were found to be absent when she called their names during Question Hour. It has now emerged that a record number of 216 MPs did not show up in the House on that particular day which was a Monday.

Most of the absentee MPs on November 30 argued "that they had not expected more than six or seven questions to be taken up during Question Hour, a reason they kept away from the proceedings". The Lok Sabha MPs' attendance record, however, shows that their attendance is generally low on Mondays, while it improves as the week progresses.

The only other Monday in the current session so far (November 23) which began on November 19 saw as many as 188 MPs, the session's third highest, being absent.

The MPs' attendance, now available online, shows that in the ongoing session, on December 3, 159 Lok Sabha MPs didn't sign the register (in other words, were absent) while 332 were present; on December 2, the corresponding figures were 169 and 322; on

December 1, 161 and 330; on November 30, 216 and 275; on November 26, 132 and 359; on November 25, 121 and 370; on November 24, 137 and 354; on November 23, 188 and 303; on November 20, 192 and 299; and on November 19, 175 and 316. Union ministers, Leaders of House, Leader of Opposition and Deputy Speaker do not sign the attendance register, so the numbers do not add up to 545.

If the average MPs' attendance in the House leaves much to be desired, there are, however, MPs who have a 100 per pent attendance in the House - in the ongoing as well as previous session. As many as 88 MPs, including Milind Deora, Sandeep Dikshit, Nirmal Khatri (all Congress); Shahnawaz Hussein, Anant Kumar Hegde, Yashodhara Raje Scindia (all BJP); Rajiv Ranjan Singh Lallan (JD-U); Jayant Chaudhary (RLD); and M B Rajesh (CPM), have reported 100 per cent attendance in the current session. In the previous Budget session (of the 15th Lok Sabha), there were 72 MPs who were present on all 26 days.

Vijaya Shanthi (TRS), Jaya Prada (SP), Anjan Kumar Yadav (Congress), Ravindra Kumar Pandey (BJP) and Kirti Azad (BJP), on the other hand, are among those having the poorest attendance record in the ongoing session. They have been present for just one day, while being absent on nine days, according to the records updated till December 3.