Assembly constituencies in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and West Bengal were classified into four urbanisation bands — Highly Urban, Moderately Urban, Moderately Rural, and Highly Rural — using mean night light intensity per AC, drawn from the SHRUG database (Development Data Lab). Read methodology Values were log₁₀-transformed to handle the skewed distribution, then run through Jenks Natural Breaks optimisation — a cartographic algorithm that places three break-points to minimise within-class variance and maximise between-class variance (Goodness of Variance Fit ≈ 0.90). Jenks was applied state-wise rather than pooled, so thresholds reflect each state”s own luminosity range. The bands can be read intuitively in terms of how brightly lit each AC is at night relative to the most urbanised seats: in Tamil Nadu, for instance, Moderately Urban ACs register at roughly 13% of Highly Urban brightness, Moderately Rural at about 5%, and Highly Rural at around 2.5% — a near tenfold drop at each step down the gradient. Data source: Election Commission of India, Data{Meet} and Lok Dhaba Credits: Areena Arora and Srinivasan Ramani Share this: Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window) WhatsApp Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook Click to share on Threads (Opens in new window) Threads Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window) Telegram Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Pinterest Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email More Click to print (Opens in new window) Print Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window) Tumblr Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window) Pocket Click to share on Mastodon (Opens in new window) Mastodon Click to share on Nextdoor (Opens in new window) Nextdoor Click to share on Bluesky (Opens in new window) Bluesky Like this:Like Loading... Post navigation Public transport must be safe and dignified, not a space of silent fear: Karnataka High Court Konaje Panchayat slaps ₹25,000 fine on Mangalore University for burning solid waste