One party dominated Madhya Pradesh's first assembly election, easily clearing the seats it needed to govern.

The Indian National Congress won 194 of the 232 seats on offer.

That was 77 seats more than it needed for a majority.

Independent candidates were its closest rivals, together winning 23 seats.

This was Madhya Pradesh's first state assembly election.

Some of its constituencies used a multi-member design, sending more than one legislator to the assembly from a single contest.

48 of the 184 constituencies worked this way.

A few numbers from that first election stand out.

Gondia, Madhya Pradesh was decided by just 89 votes — the smallest margin, how far ahead the winner finished, in votes, over whoever came second, of any seat that year.

At the other extreme, Chitrakote, Madhya Pradesh was won by the widest margin of any seat that year, measured as a share of the vote rather than in votes: 78.4%.

Nagpur I, Madhya Pradesh saw the highest turnout — the share of registered voters who actually cast a ballot — of any seat that year, at 88.4%.

Even with a majority of seats, the INC won only 49.1% of the vote share — the slice of all ballots cast that went to one party or candidate.

This was the baseline result for Madhya Pradesh's electoral history: its very first assembly election.