New Delhi, Apr 14 - The outgoing Lok Sabha boasts of a perfect blend of the old and the new. While a majority of the MPs in the 14th Lok Sabha came with a long legislative experience, the Lower House had a fresh air about it with 230 young members elected for the first time in 2004 general elections. In 1999, the figure was 172.
Out of the 230 first-time MPs, 116 lawmakers had fought their first electoral battle in 2004 as against a figure of 97 in the 13th Lok Sabha.There was a nearly 33 per cent jump in the number of young men entering Parliament in 2004 — 201 against 153 in the previous Lok Sabha.
However, there were only 29 fresh woman faces. Representation of women showed a very thin increase in comparison to the last Lok Sabha which got 19 such members.
Out of the total 543 Lok Sabha members, 222 were those who had previous experience of the Lok Sabha while 39 were those who had been elected to the Rajya Sabha.
The number of those who got re-elected to the House has shown a downward trend as it fell down from the 270 of the 13th Lok Sabha to 222 in the present Lok Sabha.
The experienced lot included political veterans like former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, who were elected for the 10th term.
Lok Sabha
