406. Thanjavur

Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam held the seat; the winning margin narrowed from 7.7% to 5.1%.

• Won on a lower shareIts own vote share fell 6.4% — it held because the rest of the vote was more divided.
• New challengerAll India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) finished second with 40.3% — it did not contest here in 1998.
• Vote fragmentedThe top two took only 85.7% between them, down from 95.9% — the field split more ways.

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