Congress Wins Back Power
What happened
Congress returned to power in the state assembly, unseating the party that had governed for the previous term.
The Indian National Congress reclaimed the assembly.
It won 174 of the assembly's 320 seats.
That left just 13 seats to spare above a majority.
The outgoing Bharatiya Janata Party still won 117 seats of its own.
What changed
This was a genuine swing back, not just a change at the top.
Swing data show 126 seats changing hands from the BJP alone.
Most of them went to the INC.
Its own seat count grew from 56 to 174.
About 58.9% of registered voters turned out to cast a ballot, a fresh high for the state.
Notable numbers
A few numbers from that election stand out.
The tightest finish anywhere was Amla, Madhya Pradesh, decided by a margin — how far ahead the winner finished, in votes, over whoever came second — of just 19.
At the other extreme, the winner in Petlawad, Madhya Pradesh took a margin of 49.1% of the vote.
The single highest turnout of the year was in Saria, Madhya Pradesh, at 82.3%.
The biggest electorate of any seat was Bhopal South, Madhya Pradesh, home to 2,97,734 registered voters.
The backdrop
This election followed a full term under a different party.
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.