It was a big day for both the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) as well as the opposition INDIA bloc. While the NDA will have a third consecutive based on the number of seats its constituents won, the INDIA bloc’s efforts paid off as well. The NDA has won big in the metro cities in the seven-phase Lok Sabha elections. People in urban centers such as Delhi, Bangalore, and Pune voted in large numbers for the BJP, with Mumbai being an exception.

In Delhi, the BJP has maintained a stronghold, with its candidates leading in all of the city’s seven constituencies. The trend is similar in Bangalore, where the urban voters have largely supported the BJP. Pune has also delivered a favourable outcome for the NDA.

However, the INDIA bloc, a coalition of opposition parties formed to defeat the BJP, has resonated more with the rural population. The bloc has gained substantial support in the vast rural stretches of the country in areas like Chhattisgarh’s Korba, Uttar Pradesh’s Aonla, Basti, and Lalganj among other constituencies.

However, the NDA nearly had a clean sweep in both rural and urban areas in states like Odisha, Gujarat, and Madhya Pradesh.

Nevertheless, the BJP won fewer seats than it had expected due to high youth unemployment in rural areas. While the BJP has dominated India’s rural heartland in the last 10 years, it’s not a rosy picture anymore.

While rural dwellers appreciate the various welfare benefits offered by the NDA, such as cash transfers, subsidised cooking gas, piped water, and free grain, the cost of living in the countryside has risen at a quicker pace than in the cities between 2019 and 2024, mainly due to an increase in food prices.

Despite the economic growth of 8.2% during 2023-24, India has failed to create enough jobs for rural youth, fueling migration to urban areas. This seemed to be a bigger issue in the Lok Sabha polls, according to analysts.

Earlier this year, Niti Aayog published a report indicating that nearly 25 crore people were lifted out of poverty during the decade Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in power. However, India’s poverty level remains projected at 11 percent, with some economists noting that the income gap has widened in recent years.

The report also revealed that the number of citizens in “multidimensional poverty” – which refers to deprivation across income, education, and basic infrastructure – was 19 percent in the rural population between 2019 and 2021, roughly four times higher than in urban areas.