Bharatiya Janata Party won again in Chhattisgarh, though its lead over the runner-up shrank to almost nothing.

The BJP took 49 of the 90 seats.

That left it just 3 seats past the majority line.

On vote share — the slice of all ballots cast that went to one party or candidate — the Indian National Congress trailed closely, 40.3% to 41.0%.

BJP kept its winning streak alive in Chhattisgarh once again.

It had now won 3 elections in a row in the state.

Turnout — the share of registered voters who actually cast a ballot — rose by +6.8 pp to 77.4%, the highest turnout of any Chhattisgarh election to date.

A few numbers from that election stand out.

This was the first Chhattisgarh election where voters could choose NOTA — "None of the Above" — a ballot option letting voters formally reject every candidate on offer — and 4,01,058 did, 3.1% of the vote.

The tightest race was in Takhatpur, Chhattisgarh, decided by a margin — how far ahead the winner finished, in votes, over whoever came second — of just 608 votes.

At the other extreme, Marwahi, Chhattisgarh was the most lopsided contest, with the winner ahead by 32.8% of the vote.

The most crowded ballot was in Raipur City South, Chhattisgarh, where 38 candidates stood.

Chhattisgarh's contest that year came down mainly to a fight between its two main national parties.