The recent assembly elections in Haryana and Maharashtra show that the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) has reclaimed its space in urban constituencies and is now rapidly adding rurban areas-seats having rural administrative structure but mimic urban living-to its sphere of influence.
In Haryana, the BJP increased its rural and urban (rurban) seats in the assembly from three in 2009 to 27 in 2014. In Maharashtra, over the same period, the party more than doubled its presence in urban and rurban constituencies from 25 to 27 seats. This jump is politically significant.
"The old middle class was urban. The new aspirational class can be defined as rural-urban. It is a mentality. It is a claim to opportunity. It is the opening up of a dream that the BJP has showed," said Shiv Visvanathan, social scientist and professor at Jindal School of Government and Public Policy.
The Census defines these rurban areas as Census Towns-administratively they continue to be governed by Village Panchayats, while they mimic urban centres in lifestyle. According to Census 2011, 31.2 percent of the population is urbanized, including the rurban areas which is one in every three Indians. The same ratio was one is to four Indians during Census 1991.
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