The BJP’s performance in Assembly constituencies spread across districts covered under the Centre’s Aspirational Districts Programme (ADP) slipped further in Jharkhand as compared to its performance in 2019 polls, while the party, along with its allies, managed to tighten its grip in Maharashtra.

Of the 112 districts covered under the ADP across the country, 19 are in Jharkhand (largest number for a state), while Maharashtra has only four. In Jharkhand, 66 Assembly constituencies fall in the Aspirational Districts.

The BJP has won only 16 Assembly seats in Jharkhand’s Aspirational Districts this time, which is lower than 18 it bagged in 2019 when the party had stood second in 40 segments against 36 this time.

The BJP’s main ally—AJSU Party—won only one seat while it came second in six. In 2019, AJSU had won two seats, and was runner-up in eight segments. The BJP’s two other allies—JD(U) and LJP(R)—won just one seat each.

Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) has bagged the most (28 seats), four more than the party’s tally of 24 in 2019 in these districts. Apart from increasing its tally, JMM came second in eight seats—up from six in the last Assembly elections. The JMM’s allies—Congress and RJD—won 15 and 3 seats, respectively, up from 14 and 1 in 2019.

In Maharashtra, where the BJP has seen its all-time best performance and emerged as the largest party, maintained its lead across the Assembly segments spread in Aspirational Districts. Of the 14 Assembly seats spread in Aspirational Districts, BJP won six, and came second in one. The BJP’s two allies—Shiv Sena (2) and NCP (1)—won three seats. In the 2019 Assembly elections, BJP had won 7 across Aspirational Districts in the state.

As far as victory margin is concerned, the BJP was able to increase its average margin in Aspirational Districts to 39,463 votes in 2024 as compared to 27,854 in 2019. The Congress party’s average victory margin came down to 4,485 votes in 2024 from 5,190 in 2019.

In Jharkhand also, BJP’s average victory margin increased from 18,724 votes in 2019 to 22,169 votes in 2024. However, the increase was even sharper in the case of the JMM. The JMM’s average victory margin almost doubled to 31,095 in 2024 from 18,091 in 2019. The Congress party, too, managed to increase its average victory margin from 19,725 votes in 2019 to 22,680 votes in 2024 in the Aspirational Districts of Jharkhand.

Launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in January 2018, the Aspirational Districts Programme (ADP) aims to quickly and effectively transform 112 most under-developed districts across the country. While there is no separate budget for the program, it mainly focuses on convergence (of Central & State Schemes), collaboration (of Central, State level Nodal Officers & District Collectors), and competition among districts through monthly delta ranking.

The architecture of the program allows it to get attention of the top leadership and policymakers at the Centre and in the states. The NITI Aayog, government’s top think tank, measures the progress of these districts by ranking them on a monthly basis. The ranking is based on the incremental progress made across 49 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) under 5 broad socio-economic themes – Health & Nutrition, Education, Agriculture & Water Resources, Financial Inclusion & Skill Development and Infrastructure. Among the 112 districts covered under the ADP, 4 are in Maharashtra (Nandurbar, Washim, Gadchiroli and Osmanabad, and 19 are in Jharkhand— Garhwa, Chatra, Giridih, Godda, Sahibganj, Pakur, Bokaro, Lohardaga, Purbi Singhbhum, Palamu, Latehar, Hazaribagh, Ramgarh, Dumka, Ranchi, Khunti, Gumla, Simdega, and Pashchimi Singhbhum.

Party

JMM

28

BJP

16

INC

15

RJD

3

AJSU Party

1

JD(U)

1

JLKM

1

1

Party

BJP

6

INC

3

Shiv Sena

2

Shiv Sena (UBT)

2

1