Actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha, who will be joining the Congress soon, has had an illustrious career as a silver-screen performer, but the same may not hold true with regard to his stint as a Lok Sabha MP in the past five years.

As per an India Today report, based on Lok Sabha records, in the past five years, Sinha had not asked a single question, or participated in any House debate.

He had also not introduced a single private member's bill either; his attendance was poor too, to be precise, he was present on only 67 percent of days the Lower House was in session.

As against this, the average attendance of other Members of Parliament was 81 percent in the same period of time.

However, it was not always like this. Past records show that in the 15th Lok Sabha (2009-14), Sinha had asked some 67 questions and taken part in nine debates.

One must note here that the two-time Lok Sabha MP from Patna Sahib has also served two terms as a Rajya Sabha MP, from 1996 to 2008. When Atal Bihari Vajpayee was PM, he had served as the Union cabinet minister for health and family welfare for a year and Union minister for shipping for another.

Asking questions in the House is one of the key ways MPs seek information from the government about the work done in their constituencies and the country. It is basically a tool to make the party in power be accountable for its work.

This apart, it is also very important for MPs to participate in House debates since everything said by an MP makes it to Lok Sabha records. These are also referred to by MPs and the public later to gauge what MPs at a given point of time thought of an issue.

On the contrary, Sinha judiciously utilised his MPLAD funds, the amount allocated to Members of Parliament for development of their areas/ constituencies. His on-ground records show he utilised 106.83 percent of the MPLAD funds released by the central government for his constituency, whereas the all-India utilisation percentage stands at 91.84 percent.

Notably, he had grown more inclined towards the LK Advani camp within the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the past five years. In fact, he has also openly attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah several times.

When he was refused a Lok Sabha ticket from Patna Sahib this time, he decided to quit the party and join Congress.