One of the key reasons behind the Congress party's spectacular performance in the Karnataka Assembly elections is its significant gains in the rural and backward districts across the state, where its rivals, the BJP and JD(S), lost considerable ground. A case in point is the performance of these parties in the elections in the state's two most underdeveloped or aspirational districts – Raichur and Yadgir. An analysis of the poll results shows that the Congress won most of the Assembly seats in Raichur and Yadgir, which account for a total of 11 seats. Of these, the Congress bagged seven seats, with the BJP and JD(S) winning two seats each. In the 2018 Assembly polls, the Congress had got just four seats in the two districts, with the BJP and JD(S) winning four and three seats respectively. Raichur and Yadgir are part of the NITI Aayog’s list of the country's 112 most underdeveloped districts, where the government is implementing the Aspirational District Programme (ADP). These two districts come under the Hyderabad Karnataka region, which has a sizeable chunk of the tribal and Scheduled Castes (SCs) population. While there are seven Assembly seats in Raichur, Yadgir accounts for four constituencies. Five of these seats are in the general category, five are reserved for the Scheduled Tribes (STs), and one is the SCs-reserved. In Raichur, the Congress won Sindhanur, Raichur Rural, Maski and Manvi, with the Raichur and Lingsugur seats being won by the BJP and the Devadurga seat by the JD(S). In Yadgir, the Congress bagged three seats – Shahapur, Shorapur and Yadgir – while the JD(S) won Gurmitkal. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched the ADP in January 2018, which is aimed at “quickly and effectively transforming 112 most underdeveloped districts across the country”. Under the ADP, the progress of these 112 districts is measured through a monthly ranking. “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,” according to the NITI Aayog. In the elections to the 224-member Karnataka Assembly, the Congress won 135 seats, the BJP 66 and the JD(S) 19. Parties' performance in two aspirational districts in Karnataka polls District Constituency Winning Party Runner-up Margin RAICHUR Sindhanur INC BJP 21942 RAICHUR Lingsugur BJP INC 2809 RAICHUR Devadurga JD(S) BJP 34256 RAICHUR Manvi INC BJP 7719 RAICHUR Raichur Rural INC BJP 13857 RAICHUR Maski INC BJP 13053 RAICHUR Raichur BJP INC 3732 YADGIR Gurmitkal JD(S) INC 2579 YADGIR Shahapur INC BJP 26027 YADGIR Yadgir INC BJP 3673 YADGIR Shorapur INC BJP 25223
