Thiruvananthapuram, June 2:
The 15th Kerala Legislative Assembly, which functioned during the second consecutive term of the CPI(M)-led LDF government from 2021 to 2026, met for 204 sitting days across 16 sessions between May 2021 and February 2026, averaging 41 sitting days a year, according to a new evaluation report.
The report, Democracy in Practice: An Evaluation of the 15th Kerala Legislative Assembly (2021-26), was jointly prepared by former Government Chief Whip Dr N Jayaraj and his private secretary Dr Relfi Paul for Thiruvananthapuram-based NGO “Budget and Legislative Research (BLR)”.
It found that the Assembly recorded 28 fewer sitting days than the 14th Kerala Legislative Assembly, which met for 232 days across 22 sessions. The decline came despite the previous Assembly maintaining a higher number of sittings even during the COVID-19 period.
The study showed that total working hours fell from 1,265 hours in the 14th Assembly to about 1,192 hours during the 2021-26 term, a reduction of nearly 73 hours. However, the average daily sitting time increased to around 5.5 hours from 5.3 hours, indicating that longer sittings partly compensated for fewer meeting days.
The report noted that the original calendar for the 15th Assembly envisaged around 300 sitting days over its five-year term, or about 60 days annually. However, only 204 sitting days were held, leaving a shortfall of 96 days.