215. Mavelikara

Indian National Congress held the seat; the winning margin narrowed from 3.4% to 0.2%.

• New challengerIndependent (IND) finished second with 44.1% — it polled just 0.9% in 1996.
• Knife-edgeDecided by 1,261 votes (0.20%) — among the closest results anywhere.
• Multi-cornered3 candidates cleared 5% — a genuinely multi-cornered fight.

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