It perhaps comes as no surprise that legislators who have not raised a single query in the question hour of the Tamil Nadu legislative assembly in the last five years include DMK leader M Karunanidhi, his son M K Stalin and DMDK leader Vijayakanth.
AISMK leader R Sarathkumar was the most active in the Tamil Nadu legislative assembly and has asked about 8,639 out of 66,497 queries in the last five-year sessions. This information was revealed as a reply to an RTI query filed by OnlineRTI.com. The assembly secretariat said that these three leaders did not ask a single question from May 2011 till the last session in February 2016.
Moreover, Karunanidhi has not attended a single session under the AIADMK regime and visits once in three months to mark his attendance in the registry, according to The Times of India. Vijayakanth also stopped attending the sessions after his fight with Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa in 2012.
However, former Chennai Mayor and DMK leader M Subramanian told The Times of India, “It's not right to say that Karunanidhi and Stalin did not ask any questions. The government has not made any arrangement for the wheelchair-bound Kalaignar to enter and be seated in the hall despite several requests.“
He also added that Stalin had asked many queries during zero-hour but the assembly speaker denied permission to have a discussion on those subjects.
The RTI showed that only 188 elected representative has asked questions in the current assembly in which 15 members asked more than 1000 questions.
Sarathkumar is followed by Arni MLA R M Babu Murugavel with 6,541 queries), Manamadurai MLA M Gunaseka asked 5,192 queries, and Viralimalai MLA Dr C Vijayabaskar asked 5,155 queries, according to The Times of India.