Bihar's assembly election ended in a hung house — a result where no single party wins enough seats to govern alone — with power split across many parties and independents.

The Rashtriya Janata Dal won the most seats of any single party, 75 of 243, well short of a majority on its own.

Its nearest rival, the Janata Dal (United), trailed with 55 seats.

Beyond the top two finishers, the result was strikingly fragmented — a large number of seats went to independents and smaller parties.

17 seats went to independent candidates, and 12 different parties won at least one seat each.

Of the seats that changed hands, 40 swung from the RJD to the JD(U), out of 169 statewide.

A few numbers from that election stand out.

The closest race: Lauria, Bihar was decided by just 54 votes — the narrowest margin, how far ahead the winner finished over whoever came second, of any seat that year.

At the other extreme, Gobindpur, Bihar was won by a margin of 53.3% of the vote.

Patna West, Bihar had the largest electorate of any seat that year, 5,12,503 registered voters, and also recorded the state's lowest turnout — the share of registered voters who actually cast a ballot — at 34.2%.

By contrast, Pranpur, Bihar recorded the highest turnout anywhere in the state, at 59.9%.

This was the first Bihar assembly election held on a smaller map than before.

The assembly had 324 seats before this election, compared with 243 now, so seat counts aren't directly comparable.