The Delhi assembly election threw up a spectacular result of sorts, something that now is fast changing the dynamics of Indian politics. The emergence of the Aam Aadmi Party signalled a major shift in the voters’ mindset.
Rediff.com’s data experts, using interactive maps, explain how the nation’s capital voted the AAP into power.
1. The map below shows final outcome of the Delhi elections. It shows which constituencies voted for which of the three main contenders.
2. The next map shows the spread of youth across the national capital.
A careful perusal of the map below shows how the constituencies where a higher percentage of youth reside seem to have voted for the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Take for example, the Najafgarh seat in South West Delhi where youth comprise 60.4 per cent of the population. Here, the BJP’s Ajeet Singh Kharkhari posted a major win.
In comparison, the New Delhi seat where Kejriwal dealt a huge blow to the ruling Congress by trouncing then chief minister Sheila Dikshit had a youth composition of just 42.1 per cent
3. This map shows the percentage of graduates in Delhi’s assembly segments.
Once again, the data throws up interesting observations.
For instance, in the North West Delhi constituency of Rohini, where 48.7 per cent of the population is graduate, AAP’s Rajesh Garg Rohiniwala beat the sitting BJP MLA (who is a graduate unlike Rajesh). The victory margin was a mere 1,872 votes.
However, a careful scrutiny of the map shows that constituencies that had more educated votes seemed to have preferred to vote for the Aam Aadmi Party.
4. The next map is a representation of the professionals who are what we call White Collar Workers.
Here again the more affluent section of the national capital seemed to have gone in favour of the AAP. Kajriwal's party seems to have cornered a major chunk of the votes from this section.
5. This map shows where the English-speaking population of Delhi reside.
It once again shows how Kejriwal and company gained from their awareness campaigns in the run up to the polls. The map indicates that the city’s English-speaking population had a big role to play in the seats where the AAP posted major wins.
6. This map show the Internet reach in the city.
Normally, one would assume that the upmarket localities would have more number of people with access to the Internet. However, as the map below reveals, this is simply a myth.
Surprisingly, barring a few seats, the BJP seems to have drawn the attention of Delhi Internet users more than the AAP.
Conclusion: Popular to the general impression that youth voted overwhelmingly for the AAP, our findings prove that this is not true. It seems the youth favoured the BJP. However, educated and white collar voters preferred the AAP, with the BJP in second place. However, surprisingly, areas where Internet penetration is high, preferred the BJP over the AAP.
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