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Scoring Methodology

How Politia calculates accountability scores, what data it uses, and what its limitations are. We believe transparency about our own methods is as important as the transparency we measure.

The Formula

Overall Score = Participation Score + Disclosure Score - Integrity Risk Adjustment

Each component is calculated independently and contributes to the final score. The Overall Score typically ranges from 0 to 100, though negative values are possible if integrity risk penalties are high.

1. Participation Score

Measures how actively an MP engages in parliamentary proceedings. The component scores are weighted and summed:

  • Attendance -- Percentage of sessions attended, sourced from Lok Sabha / Rajya Sabha official records.
  • Questions Asked -- Number of parliamentary questions raised, normalized against the session average.
  • Debates Participated -- Active participation in parliamentary debates.
  • Private Bills Introduced -- Legislative initiative shown through private member bills.

2. Disclosure Score

Measures the completeness and transparency of financial disclosures filed as part of election affidavits:

  • Affidavit Completeness -- Whether all mandatory fields in the affidavit were filled.
  • Assets Declared -- Whether movable and immovable assets were properly itemized.
  • Liabilities Declared -- Whether outstanding liabilities were disclosed.

3. Integrity Risk Adjustment

A penalty subtracted from the overall score, based on self-declared criminal cases in election affidavits:

  • Criminal Cases Penalty -- Based on the number of declared criminal cases pending against the candidate.
  • Serious Cases Penalty -- Additional penalty for cases involving serious charges (e.g., those under IPC sections carrying sentences of 5+ years).

Important: These are self-declared cases from sworn affidavits, not convictions. Pending cases do not imply guilt. However, the volume and severity of declared cases is a factual data point voters may wish to consider.

Data Sources

  • Parliament of India -- Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha official websites for attendance, questions, debates, and bills.
  • Election Commission of India -- Official election results, candidate data.
  • Association for Democratic Reforms / MyNeta.info -- Digitized election affidavit data including assets, liabilities, and criminal records.

Politia does not use AI-generated summaries, social media analysis, media sentiment, or any subjective data. Every data point traces to a verifiable official record.

Known Limitations

  • Data may lag official sources by days or weeks. Scores reflect the last available data, not real-time records.
  • Constituency-level work, committee contributions, and behind-the-scenes legislative drafting are not captured by these metrics.
  • The scoring formula weights are a design choice. Different weightings would produce different rankings. We publish the formula for scrutiny.
  • Rajya Sabha members have structurally different roles; direct comparison across chambers should be made cautiously.
  • Incomplete or erroneously filed affidavits can affect disclosure scores. We report what is filed, not what is true.
  • Newer MPs may have fewer data points, potentially disadvantaging them in participation scores.

Non-partisan Commitment

Politia applies the same formula to every MP regardless of party, state, or ideology. We do not editorialize, recommend candidates, or attach interpretive labels beyond what the numbers show. The data is structured for citizens to draw their own conclusions.