Hyderabad's only election
What happened
Hyderabad State's only general election gave one party a clear working majority, with independent candidates taking a share of what was left.
Indian National Congress won 93 of the 175 seats on offer.
That gave it a majority with 5 seats to spare.
Independent candidates took 14 seats of their own.
Its nearest rival, Peoples Democratic Front, won 42 seats.
What changed
Hyderabad's Legislative Assembly was elected only this once — its entire electoral history begins and ends with this single election.
Hyderabad State was dissolved under the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, effective 1 November 1956. Its Telugu-speaking Telangana region joined Andhra State to form Andhra Pradesh, its Marathi-speaking Marathwada districts joined Bombay State, and its Kannada-speaking western districts joined Mysore State.
Some of its constituencies used a multi-member design, where a single contest sent more than one member to the assembly.
33 of the 142 constituencies worked this way.
Notable numbers
A few numbers from Hyderabad's only election are worth knowing on their own.
The closest race was in Kushtagi, Hyderabad, decided by just 89 votes — the narrowest margin, how far ahead the winner finished, in votes, over whoever came second, of any seat that election.
At the other end, Shahpur, Hyderabad was won by 77.0% of the vote — the widest margin of any seat, measured as a share of the vote rather than in votes.
Turnout across the state — the share of registered voters who actually cast a ballot — came to about 43.5%, highest in Vemsur, Hyderabad at 69.7%.
The most crowded contest was in Hingoli, Hyderabad, where 9 candidates stood for a single seat.
The backdrop
The runner-up wasn't a standalone party at all — it was a front for a party barred from contesting directly.
The Communist Party of India was banned in Hyderabad State when its Telangana armed struggle campaign ended in October 1951. CPI members contested Hyderabad's first general election under a front organisation, the People's Democratic Front, which placed second in the assembly with 42 of 175 seats.