18th Lok Sabha

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 ₹1 crore (US$100,000) worth, which is an increase from 88% in 2019. The average assets of all the MPs of the house computes to ₹46.34 crore (US$4.8 million). TDP member Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani, a doctor and businessman, has declared the highest assets of ₹5,700 crore (US$590 million).

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.

Proceedings and disruptions

Disruptions and adjournments during proceedings were reported to have increased in the 18th Lok Sabha compared to the 17th Lok Sabha.

During the Budget Session of 2026, several opposition members particularly from Indian National Congress entered the vale of the House and moved towards the front benches, where they displayed placards in close proximity to the Prime Minister’s seat. Among those present in the vale during the protest were Jothimani, Varsha Gaikwad, R. Sudha, Sanjana Jatav, Dimple Yadav, Geniben Thakor, Pratibha Dhanorkar, Imran Masood, Kalyan Banerjee and others. The proceedings were adjourned by the Chair, Sandhya Rai, in view of the disruptions.

Subsequently, Speaker, Om Birla commented on the need to maintain order and decorum in the House during parliamentary proceedings. Following the incident, members of the Opposition moved a motion seeking the removal of Birla, however, the motion did not succeed due to minority numbers.