168. Thiruverumbur

All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam held the seat; the winning margin narrowed from 13.2% to 4.5%.

• Won on a lower shareIts own vote share fell 8.4% — it held because the rest of the vote was more divided.
• New challengerCommunist Party of India (Marxist) (CPM) finished second with 43.4% — it did not contest here in 1980.
• Vote fragmentedThe top two took only 91.2% between them, down from 99.3% — the field split more ways.

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