5 But BJP did not do badly in all poor districts
The 2017 assembly elections in Gujarat were the most difficult for the BJP in a long time. Its seat share dropped to the lowest level since 1995 and the Congress recorded its best ever vote share and seat share performance since 1985. Economic distress on account of demonetisation and Goods and Services Tax and rural distress was among the key poll plank of the Congress in these elections. However, a district-wise analysis of the BJP’S performance in 2017 shows that it will be wrong to draw a mechanical relation between economic inequality and BJP’S political fortunes. While the BJP overcame a significant backlash in a rich district such as Surat to win more than 90% of the assembly constituencies and it did do very badly in some of the poorest districts such as Dang and Narmada this pattern does not hold for all poor and rich districts. In fact, some of the districts where the BJP did badly are among the relatively prosperous ones such as Amreli and Morbi while it was able to repeat in performance in Dahod, the poorest district in the state as per NFHS asset rankings.