This Lok Sabha polls, urban voters played a decisive role in the victory of Congress candidate Pawan Kumar Bansal. Around 54 per cent of the urban votes polled were in favour of the Congress. This seems to have largely compensated for the reduction of the party’s vote share from the colonies.

The voting trend in the city has seen a major shift this elections. During the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, the vote share of the Congress from the sectors was 46.54 per cent, while from the colonies — considered a Congress stronghold — the vote share was 63 per cent. In the villages, this was 52 per cent.

There were around 1.7 lakh people who voted from the sectors, 1.4 lakh from colonies and around 68,000 from the villages.

This time round, while the Congress gained in the sectors, it lost on its earlier vote share from the colonies and villages, which came down to around 38 per cent and 43 per cent, respectively.

Party spokesperson and senior leader Pardeep Chhabra said the party had abstained from negative campaigning. “Rather than making allegations against our opponents, we took the message of development to our voters, which worked,” he said.

The BJP, meanwhile, lost out on its traditional stronghold — the urban vote base. While 45 per cent polling had taken in favour of the party in 2004, it came down to around 34 per cent this poll season.

For the BSP, which had a measly vote share ranging between 2 per cent and 4 per cent in the city in the last elections, this time saw a sharp rise to 18 per cent. The party also managed to make a dent in the colonies and villages.

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