In what may be seen as proof that the party’s appeal is not restricted to just Hindus, the Bharatiya Janata Party was able to clinch more than 50 per cent of the 79 Lok Sabha constituencies in ‘minority-concentration’ districts in the recently concluded general elections, reports The Times of India.
The said minority-concentration districts were identified as such by the UPA government in 2008; they also suffer from below average socio-economic indicators.
41 of the seats in question were won by the BJP’s candidates, which was an improvement of seven compared to the previous general elections in 2014. On the other hand, Congress’ share in such seats declined by 50 per cent, going down from 12 in 2014 to only six seats this time around.
The biggest of said gains by the BJP have been made in West Bengal, where 18 of the 42 seats of the state fall into this category.