In those Lok Sabha seats where poverty declined, BJP suffered a setback and Congress had a great victory

New Delhi: During the Lok Sabha election campaign, the BJP constantly emphasized on the issue of poverty reduction. This was one of the key issues of the BJP. But this issue did not seem to benefit the BJP. The party suffered a major setback in the areas where poverty declined during the BJP government. Out of the 517 Lok Sabha seats that saw a reduction in poverty from 2015-2016, the BJP won 232 seats, which is a decline of 63 seats since winning 295 seats in 2019. On the other hand, the Congress increased its tally here from 42 seats in 2019 to 92 in 2024. The NDA won a total of 282 seats and the opposition India Block managed to win 226 seats.

PM Modi often raises the issue of reducing poverty

Prime Minister Narendra Modi often claimed to have reduced poverty in his/her election speeches. In many of his/her speeches, he/she talked about the government lifting about 25 crore people out of poverty in the last decade. For this, he/she cited Niti Aayog. Niti Aayog measures poverty, health, education and living standards using data from the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) collected every five years.

What does the report say about Lok Sabha elections and poverty?

According to the Indian Express report, Harvard University professor SV Subramanian’s team created a database for Lok Sabha constituencies. This database included poverty figures between 2015-16 and 2019-21. According to this report, poverty decreased in 517 Lok Sabha seats, while poverty increased in the remaining 26 seats. Out of the seats where poverty decreased, the BJP alliance won 314 seats, just like the last election. At the same time, opposition candidates won the elections on 203 seats. The BJP, which is in power at the Center, had laid a lot of emphasis on reducing poverty during the election campaign. But, in the 517 seats where poverty decreased, BJP got only 232 seats. This is 63 seats less than the 2019 elections. At the same time, Congress got 92 seats in 2024 as compared to 42 seats in 2019. That is, despite the reduction in poverty, BJP had to face defeat in many seats, while Congress benefited more here.

Despite the increase in poverty, BJP won these seats

According to the database, out of the 26 seats where poverty increased between 2015 and 2021, only 6 seats were won by opposition parties this time. In the remaining seats, the party that won last time won the election again. However, poverty increased by more than 1% in only 7 seats. Among these, the Shillong seat in Meghalaya saw the highest increase (6.01%). Out of the 26 seats where poverty increased, BJP won 9, which is two more than the last election. Congress won 7 seats and Trinamool Congress won 3 seats. Overall, NDA got 11 of these 26 seats and India Alliance got 14 seats. BJP snatched one seat each from Congress and Trinamool Congress. Congress got 3 seats less. In Kerala, one seat went to BJP, one seat went to CPI(M) and one seat went to Voice of the People Party in Meghalaya.

What about the seats with extreme poverty?

There are only 6 seats across the country where more than half of the population lives in poverty. Of these, 3 seats are in Bihar, 2 seats are in Uttar Pradesh and 1 seat is in Jharkhand. Out of these, 5 seats were won by the same parties as in 2019. Only the Shravasti seat in UP went from Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) to Samajwadi Party (SP). NDA and All India Alliance got 3-3 seats each on these seats.

Results of Lok Sabha seats with low poverty

Apart from this, there are 152 Lok Sabha seats where less than 5% of the population lives in poverty. Out of these, only 46 seats were won by the same party as in the last election, while the party changed in the remaining 106 seats. BJP won 45 of these seats, while its allies (NDA) won 15 more seats. Congress got 43 of these seats, while other India Alliance parties got 39 seats. Thus, in the seats with less poverty, the opposition parties (India Alliance) got more seats than the ruling party (NDA).