BJP's First Majority
What happened
A new party took charge of the state assembly for the first time, winning a commanding majority of its own.
The Bharatiya Janata Party claimed that majority outright.
It won 220 of the assembly's 320 seats — a landslide.
The outgoing Indian National Congress fell to just 56 seats — a collapse from the government it had led.
What changed
This marked the party's first-ever majority government in the state, after years of building up its own seat count election by election.
It had won just 58 seats at the previous election; this time it won 220.
That is a gain of 162 seats in a single election.
Notable numbers
A few numbers from that election stand out.
The tightest finish was Gunderdehi, Madhya Pradesh, decided by a margin — how far ahead the winner finished, in votes, over whoever came second — of just 24.
At the other extreme, the winner in Jobat, Madhya Pradesh took a margin of 51.4% of the vote.
Turnout — the share of registered voters who actually cast a ballot — peaked in Waraseoni, Madhya Pradesh, at 77.3%.
Turnout across the state as a whole reached 52.9%, the highest yet recorded in the state's own history.
The backdrop
The party's win also brought a change of leadership at the top of the state government.
Madhya Pradesh's Legislative Assembly election was held in February 1990. The Bharatiya Janata Party won 220 of 320 seats, up from 58 in the 1985 election, and Sunderlal Patwa was sworn in as chief minister on 5 March 1990, replacing the outgoing Indian National Congress government.