176. Bellary

Indian National Congress held the seat; the winning margin widened from 0.7% to 8.9%.

• Won on a lower shareIts own vote share fell 4.1% — it held because the rest of the vote was more divided.
• New challengerLok Shakti (LS) finished second with 30.9% — it did not contest here in 1996.
• Vote fragmentedThe top two took only 70.6% between them, down from 87.0% — the field split more ways.
• TurnoutTurnout rose 6.8% to 60.7%.

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