A New Party Takes Over
What happened
The state's Indian National Congress lost power, defeated by a brand-new opposition force.
The Janata Party took charge of the state assembly.
It won 230 of the assembly's 320 seats — a landslide.
Its rival, the INC, fell to just 84 seats — a collapse from the government it had led.
What changed
This was also the first election held on entirely new constituency boundaries.
The boundaries had just gone through delimitation — the official redrawing of constituency boundaries, which happens every so often as India's population shifts.
The assembly grew from 296 seats to 320.
The party that won hadn't existed at the previous election, going from 0 seats to 230.
Notable numbers
A few numbers from that election stand out.
The tightest finish was Jabalpur Cantonment, Madhya Pradesh, decided by a margin — how far ahead the winner finished, in votes, over whoever came second — of just 13.
At the other extreme, the winner in Keslur, Madhya Pradesh took a margin of 62.9% of the vote.
Turnout — the share of registered voters who actually cast a ballot — was highest in Burhanpur, Madhya Pradesh, at 71.5%.
The backdrop
The party that won this election had never held power in the state before.