Congress holds on as turnout surges
What happened
Indian National Congress held on to power again, though with a slightly smaller majority than before.
The INC won 58 of the state's 75 seats — still a landslide by seat share.
That was 20 seats clear of the 38-seat majority mark.
Independent candidates followed with 9 seats.
What changed
Turnout jumped sharply, and a real share of seats changed hands even though the same party held on.
Turnout — the share of registered voters who actually cast a ballot — rose +20.3 pp to 60.0%.
20 of the state's 75 constituencies elected a different party than last time.
The biggest swing ran from the Jammu & Kashmir National Conference to the INC, 5 seats at once.
Notable numbers
A few numbers from the results stand out.
The closest race was in Nowshera, Jammu & Kashmir, decided by a margin — how far ahead the winner finished, in votes, over whoever came second — of just 51.
Turnout peaked in Chadura, Jammu & Kashmir, where 86.6% of registered voters cast a ballot.
Mendhar, Jammu & Kashmir was the largest constituency by registered voters, with 50,008 names on the rolls.
The most crowded contest was Jammu South, Jammu & Kashmir, where 16 candidates stood.
The backdrop
This was Congress's second election in a row governing after its rival's leadership had folded into it.
On 10 January 1965, the Jammu & Kashmir National Conference's working committee voted to dissolve and merge into the Indian National Congress, though a rival faction led by Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad contested the 1967 election separately under the National Conference name. Congress governed through the 1972 election too, until Sheikh Abdullah revived the National Conference under the 1975 Kashmir Accord.