The Kashmir Accord's first verdict
What happened
A newly revived version of Jammu & Kashmir's National Conference swept back into government, winning comfortably.
The Jammu & Kashmir National Conference won 47 of the state's 76 seats — a landslide by seat share.
That left it 8 seats clear of the 39-seat majority mark.
Its nearest rival, the Janata Party, itself a brand-new party that year, took 13 seats.
What changed
Governing power changed hands, and the party that took over had not previously won a seat in this record under this name.
The JKN went from 0 seats to 47.
Turnout — the share of registered voters who actually cast a ballot — climbed to 65.0%, the highest recorded here to that point.
Notable numbers
A few numbers from the results stand out.
The closest race was in Sopore, Jammu & Kashmir, decided by a margin — how far ahead the winner finished, in votes, over whoever came second — of just 33.
Turnout peaked in Anantnag, Jammu & Kashmir, where 86.6% of registered voters cast a ballot.
Zadibal, Jammu & Kashmir was the largest constituency by registered voters, with 56,400 names on the rolls.
The most crowded contest was Samba, Jammu & Kashmir, where 14 candidates stood.
The backdrop
This election followed a political accord that had recently reshaped the state's leadership.
On 24 February 1975, the Indira-Sheikh Accord ended Sheikh Abdullah's 22-year exclusion from office, restoring him as Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir. His revived National Conference then won 47 of 76 seats (46.2% of the vote) in the June 1977 assembly election, held after the central government pledged tighter safeguards against electoral rigging.