No majority in Patiala and East Punjab States Union's first election
What happened
Congress won more seats than any other party in the new union's first assembly election, but not enough to form a majority on its own.
The Indian National Congress won 26 of the 60 seats on offer.
That left the union with a hung house — no single party held enough seats to govern alone.
Its nearest rival, the Akali Party, won 19 seats.
What changed
This was the first legislative assembly election the newly formed union ever held.
Some of its constituencies used a multi-member design, sending more than one member to the assembly per contest.
10 of its 50 constituencies worked this way.
Altogether, the assembly grew to 60 members.
Notable numbers
A few numbers from that first election stand out.
The closest race was Julana, Patiala and East Punjab States Union, decided by a margin — how far ahead the winner finished, in votes, over whoever came second — of just 81 votes.
The widest win was in Malerkotla, Patiala and East Punjab States Union, where the winner finished 57.8% ahead of the runner-up.
About 59.4% of registered voters turned out to cast a ballot across the union.
The most crowded contest was Kot Kapura Jaitu, Patiala and East Punjab States Union, where 24 candidates stood for a single seat.
The backdrop
The union itself was brand new, formed by merging several princely states in the region just before this election.
The Patiala and East Punjab States Union was inaugurated on 15 July 1948, merging eight princely states — Patiala, Jind, Nabha, Kapurthala, Faridkot, Malerkotla, Kalsia and Nalagarh — into one administrative union with Patiala as its capital. It was merged into Punjab under the States Reorganisation Act on 1 November 1956, ending as a separate political unit.