PM Modi was among Uttar Pradesh MPs who have not spent their constituency fund yet.
Some of India's biggest politicians contested and won the Lok Sabha elections from Uttar Pradesh. But eight months later, they have not spent anything from their Local Area Development Fund (MPLAD).
On the list of high-profile MPs from Uttar Pradesh who have spent not a rupee yet from their constituency funds are Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and his daughter in law Dimple, who is also the wife of UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav.
Data released by the Ministry of Statistics on MPLADs in fact shows that only two of UP's 80 lawmakers have had money from their MPLADs funds sanctioned. The BJP's Rajesh Verma from Sitapur who has used Rs six lakh and actress-turned-BJP politician Hema Malini, who represents Mathura, is yet to spend the Rs 1.11 crore she has had sanctioned.
Each parliamentarian is entitled to use Rs 5 crore a year for development work in his or her constituency. In a first installment, the government has released Rs 2.5 crore to each lawmaker, a total of Rs 200 crore for the state's 80 lawmakers.
Of this, Rs 199.94 crore is lying unspent.
The Congress and the BJP blame the state government for delay in executing projects, but are unable to explain why funds have not been sanctioned.
UP Congress chief Nirmal Khatri, said: "One of the reasons for no disbursement could be that the concerned departments have not acted on the proposals floated by the MPs."
BJP spokesperson, Vijay Pathak, too neatly shifted blame on to the local administration. "We have to look at why this is happening. The implementation has to be done by the district administration."
The Samajwadi Party which rules UP has no one to blame for its prominent MPs not spending money to develop their constituencies. Rajendra Chaudhary, the party spokesperson, told NDTV, "I don't have these records. We will find out where the delay is and bring it to the knowledge of the Chief Minister."
Uttar Pradesh, incidentally, is not the only state with a poor record of fund usage. According to the data released, there has been zero spending by MPs in Maharashtra, Jammu and Kashmir and Jharkhand.