59. Balli Maran

Indian National Congress held the seat; the winning margin widened from 43.8% to 46.5%.

• Won on a lower shareIts own vote share fell 5.4% — it held because the rest of the vote was more divided.
• New challengerIndependent (IND) finished second with 18.1% — it polled just 0.3% in 1998.
• Vote fragmentedThe top two took only 82.7% between them, down from 96.3% — the field split more ways.

Written from the constituency figures by a fixed set of rules — no language model.