78. Santipur

Indian National Congress held the seat; the winning margin widened from 6.5% to 13.4%.

• Won on a lower shareIts own vote share fell 6.3% — it held because the rest of the vote was more divided.
• New challengerIndependent (IND) finished second with 29.6% — it polled just 0.5% in 1996.
• Vote fragmentedThe top two took only 72.6% between them, down from 92.0% — the field split more ways.

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