TMC's Derek O' Brien leading questioner in RS during of first half of budget session

TMC MP Derek O'Brien was the leading questioner in the Rajya Sabha in first half of the budget session with 18 questions.

In total, 118 members of the upper house have raised a total of 1,120 unstarred questions seeking written replies from the government on various issues concerning the policies, the Rajya Sabha secretariat said in a statement.

As many as 160 unstarred questions were replied on each of the seven days of the first phase of the session, which concluded on Tuesday.

Out of the total unstarred questions, 50 per cent were asked by only 35 members of Rajya Sabha, the statement reads.

O'Brien was the lead questioner with 18 to his credit, followed by YSRCP's Vemireddy Prabhakar Reddy with 17 and Independent MP Parimal Nathwani with 16 questions, it said.

Ten members, including BJP's KJ Alphons, and Kumari Selja and T Subbarami Reddy of the Congress, raised 15 questions each.

Other members who raised large number of questions are: Vijay Goel and Narayan Rane of the BJP, and Shiv Sena's Sanjay Raut, all of whom raised 14 questions each.