Of the 112 districts covered under the ADP across the country, 19 are in Jharkhand (largest number for a state), while Maharashtra has only four. In Jharkhand, 66 Assembly constituencies fall in the Aspirational Districts.

If hubris had let the BJP-led NDA dispensation down in the Lok Sabha polls, Congress was consumed by the same infection during the just-concluded assembly polls to Maharashtra and Jharkhand. Former Congress President Rahul Gandhi reacted to the Congress party's dismal show in Maharashtra terming it 'unexpected.

Welfare, freebies, doles, whatever one may choose to call it, is becoming an indispensable part of electoral strategy in most parts of India