18th Lok Sabha

The 18th Lok Sabha was formed after general elections were held in India over seven phases from 19 April to 1 June 2024, to elect all members from 543 constituencies of the Lok Sabha. The votes were counted, and the results were declared on 4 June 2024. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won a plurality of
seats with 240, followed by the Indian National Congress (INC) with 99 seatshttps://sansad.in/ls/members?party=Indian%20National%20Congress With the required absolute majority being 272 seats, having 293 seats, the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) coalition formed the government. Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi (BJP) is the Leader of the House and Rahul Gandhi (INC) is the Leader of Opposition.

Members

* Speaker: Om Birla
** Deputy Speaker: Vacant
* Leader of the House: Narendra Modi
* Leader of Opposition: Rahul Gandhi
* Secretary General: Utpal Kumar Singh
On 26 June 2024, Om Birla, was elected Speaker of the Lok Sabha, defeating the opposition candidate Kodikunnil Suresh, in a voice vote, making it fourth election of Lok Sabha speaker in the history of India. The last time elections were held for the post of speaker was in 1976 during the tenure of the 5th Lok Sabha, with Baliram Bhagat of INC(R) defeating Jagannathrao Joshi of BJS. Birla became the 5th Speaker of the Lok Sabha to retain his post for 2 consecutive terms, after G. M. C. Balayogi, Balram Jakhar, G. S. Dhillon and M. A. Ayyangar.

Panel of Chairpersons

Party-wise distribution of seats

Member statistics

;Party-wise
The 18th Lok Sabha has members from 41 different parties. Out of the 543 seats of the Lok Sabha, 346 members (~64%) are from the 6 recognised national parties, 179 seats (~33%) are from the recognised state parties, 11 seats (~2%) are from the unrecognised parties and 7 seats (~1%) are from independent politicians. 262 (~48%) have previously served as MPs and 216 (~40%) were re-elected from the 17th Lok Sabha.

;Age, gender and religion
The average age of the elected MPs is 56 years, down from 59 years in the 17th Lok Sabha. Four elected MPs are of the age of 25, which is the minimum age to contest: Shambhavi Choudhary (of Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) party from Samastipur seat), Sanjana Jatav (of Indian National Congress party from Bharatpur seat), Pushpendra Saroj (of Samajwadi Party from Kaushambi seat) and Priya Saroj (of Samajwadi Party from Machhlishahr seat). The oldest elected MP was T. R. Baalu (of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam party from Sriperumbudur seat) at the age of 82, having won the national elections for the seventh time. The number of women was reduced by four to 74 (~14%), considerably short of the 33% which will be required after the Women's Reservation Bill, 2023 is enforced. This Bill will be enacted after the delimitation of constituencies happens after the 2024 elections and next census. About 16% of the total women MPs are below the age of 40. Out of all the women candidates contesting the elections, only 9.3% won. The present Lok Sabha has a husband-wife couple of Akhilesh Yadav and his wife Dimple (both of SP Party, from Kannauj seat and Mainpuri seat respectively). The last time a couple had been elected was in the 16th Lok Sabha. In terms of religion, 24 MPs are Muslims (4.4%), three are Buddhists (0.6%), and the remaining 95% comprise Hindu, Sikh, Christian, and non-religious MPs.

;Crime
The Association for Democratic Reforms has noted that nearly 46% of the elected members (251) have criminal cases registered against them. Of these, 170 (~31%) have been registered with serious crimes that include rape, murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping, and various crimes against women. Comparing this with the 17th Lok Sabha, a total of 233 MPs (~43%) had criminal charges, with 159 (~29%) had serious crimes registered against them. 27 winning candidates have disclosed that they have been convicted in criminal cases. Four of these cases are related to murder under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and 27 declared cases are related to attempt to murder.

;Education
As per the self-declared forms submitted before the polls, all of the elected MPs are literate. During the election, 121 candidates had recorded themselves to be illiterates, but none of them won. 78% of members have at least undergraduate education, and 5% have doctorates. Professionally, the majority of them indicated they were social workers or agriculturists, while 7% were lawyers and 4% were medical practitioners.

;Assets
With regards to economic standing, 93% of MPs hold family assets of more than worth, which is an increase from 88% in 2019. The average assets of all the MPs of the house computes to . TDP member Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani, a doctor and businessman, has declared the highest assets of .

Sessions

Lok Sabha usually has three sessions in a year Budget Session (February to May), Monsoon session (July to September) and Winter session (November to December). Following sessions were held of 18th Lok Sabha.

See also

* List of members of the 18th Lok Sabha
* List of Indian parliamentary committees
* Third Modi ministry

References

External links

Official website
of the Election Commission of India

{{Current Indian assemblies

2024 establishments in India
Terms of the Lok Sabha