Rural distress seemed to be the proverbial Achilles’ heel for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. That lower food prices benefit those who buy rather than produce (and hence sell) food is obvious. India’s high food consumption expenditure share levels provide an in-built insurance to any regime which manages to bring down food prices. Despite such efforts, previously unaligned upper caste BJP voters displayed the lowest amount of pro-incumbency for the Narendra Modi government during the 2019 elections. The share of upper caste Hindu voters who supported the BJP increased by 10.6% between the 2014 and 2019 elections.

Source: Hindustan Times July 21, 2019 01:41 UTC