A fourth win for the Left
What happened
The governing coalition won again in West Bengal, adding a little to its already large majority.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) won 189 of the 294 seats — a landslide result.
That left it 41 seats clear of the 148-seat majority mark.
Its closest rival, the Indian National Congress, won 43 seats.
What changed
The governing coalition won again, and comparatively few seats changed hands this time.
The CPM won for the 4th time running.
56 of the 294 seats changed hands from the previous election.
11 of those moved from the CPM to the INC alone — the largest shift that year.
Notable numbers
A few numbers from this election stand out.
The tightest race was Tollygunge, West Bengal, decided by a margin — how far ahead the winner finished, in votes, over whoever came second — of just 322 votes.
The most one-sided contest was Canning East, West Bengal, won by 50.1% of the vote over the runner-up.
Turnout — the share of registered voters who actually cast a ballot — peaked in Sabang, West Bengal, at 90.3%.
The most crowded race was Bara Bazar, West Bengal, where 22 candidates stood.
The backdrop
By this election, the same coalition had won every state election since it first took power.
The Left Front, a coalition led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist), won the 1977 West Bengal assembly election with 231 of 294 seats. Jyoti Basu was sworn in as Chief Minister on 21 June 1977, beginning a Left Front government that continued through seven consecutive assembly elections until 2011.