Congress returns with a supermajority
What happened
The opposition returned to power in a big way, ending the previous government's run.
The Indian National Congress won 178 seats, a supermajority — enough to control the assembly outright.
That gave it 79.5% of the assembly, 65 seats clear of the bare majority mark.
The Janata Dal trailed far behind with just 24 seats.
What changed
The winning party's own seat count broke new ground — its best showing yet.
It won 178 seats this time, more than any party had managed before.
The JD also made its debut as a seat-winning party this election.
It won 27.1% of the vote but only a small share of the seats.
Notable numbers
A few numbers from that election stand out.
The closest race was in Shivajinagar, Karnataka, decided by a margin — how far ahead the winner finished, in votes, over whoever came second — of just 91.
At the other extreme, Tiptur, Karnataka was won by 54.4% of the vote.
Turnout — the share of registered voters who actually cast a ballot — peaked in Srinivasapur, Karnataka, reaching 81.5%.
The largest electorate was Uttarahalli, Karnataka, with 4,56,705 people on the rolls.
The backdrop
This result replaced the government that had taken shape after Karnataka's previous election.
In the 1983 Karnataka Legislative Assembly election, the Janata Party won 95 of 224 seats in a hung assembly. Ramakrishna Hegde was sworn in as Chief Minister on 10 January 1983 with outside support from the Bharatiya Janata Party and independents, forming Karnataka's first non-Congress state government.