In country’s most underdeveloped districts, BJP cedes some ground to Congress

The BJP has ceded some ground to Congress in some of the most backward districts of the country, shows an analysis of the Lok Sabha election results.

The BJP won or was leading across 46 of the 93 parliamentary constituencies in 112 of these “aspirational districts”. And of these 46 seats, eight came from Madhya Pradesh, the highest tally from a single state. The BJP has swept Madhya Pradesh, winning all 29 seats.

In 2019, the BJP had won the highest ten seats from Jharkhand across all aspirational districts.

In Uttar Pradesh, where the BJP has faced a significant setback, the party won or was leading on only three of eight seats in aspirational districts. The Samajwadi Party won or was leading in the remaining five seats in the state’s aspirational districts.

In Odisha’s aspirational districts, however, the BJP increased its tally from two in 2019 to six in 2024. In Odisha, too, the BJP has performed well, winning 19 of 20 seats.

Overall, though, the BJP’s performance has taken a hit in these aspirational districts — the party’s tally came down from 53 in 2019 to 46 in 2024. The Congress, however, has been able to increase its tally in these districts. In 2019, Congress had won only nine constituencies in these districts, but this time the party has won 19 seats. The Congress’s gains across aspirational districts came from Jharkhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Telangana.

The Aspirational Districts Program was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in January 2018, with the objective of expediting the transformation of 112 “most backward districts” across 28 states through the convergence of government programmes and schemes.

The districts were chosen by senior officials of the Union government in consultation with