37. Kottur

Indian National Congress held the seat; the winning margin narrowed from 10.1% to 2.6%.

• Won on a lower shareIts own vote share fell 24.4% — it held because the rest of the vote was more divided.
• New challengerJanata Dal (Secular) (JDS) finished second with 24.8% — it polled just 1.1% in 1999.
• Vote fragmentedThe top two took only 52.1% between them, down from 93.5% — the field split more ways.

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