A near-even finish
What happened
This was a hung house — a result where no single party wins enough seats to govern alone.
The Bharatiya Janata Party won 18 seats.
The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha won exactly the same number, 18.
It was vote share — the slice of all ballots cast that went to one party or candidate — that separated them: 20.2% to 15.2%.
What changed
The contest between the state's two largest parties came down to the wire this time.
Two parties won seats here for the first time: JVM.
The BJP has now led on seats in 2 elections in a row.
Even so, its own seat count fell, going from 30 seats to 18.
Notable numbers
A few numbers from the results stand out on their own.
Hatia, Jharkhand saw the tightest fight of the election, decided by a margin — how far ahead the winner finished, in votes, over whoever came second — of just 25 votes.
Baharagora, Jharkhand recorded the highest turnout of the election, 76.0% — the share of registered voters who actually cast a ballot.
At the other end, Jaganathpur, Jharkhand was the widest win of the night, with a margin of 31.3% of the vote.
Bokaro, Jharkhand was the largest constituency by registered voters, with 4,44,370 on its rolls.
The backdrop
This was still early in the young state's history.
Jharkhand's assembly was still finding its footing after the earlier turmoil.