A familiar leader, no majority
What happened
Congress finished on top of Meghalaya's assembly election once again, in a state where no single party has managed to govern alone.
The Indian National Congress won the most seats, 25 of the 60 on offer, but fell short of a majority.
The United Democratic Party followed with 20 seats.
What changed
This extended a long-running pattern in Meghalaya's assembly, where Congress keeps finishing ahead in the seat count without ever governing alone.
Its run at the top has now reached 5 elections in a row.
Several parties, among them UDP, PDM, HPDP, and BJP, won assembly seats for the first time in the state's electoral record.
Notable numbers
A few numbers from that election stand out.
The tightest finish was in Sohryngkham, Meghalaya, decided by a margin — how far ahead the winner finished, in votes, over whoever came second — of just 10 votes.
Turnout — the share of registered voters who actually cast a ballot — was highest in Rymbai, Meghalaya, at 87.7%.
Tura, Meghalaya had the largest electorate of any seat that year, with 37,925 names on the rolls.
The most crowded ballot was in Nongkrem, Meghalaya, where 14 candidates stood for the seat.
The backdrop
Meghalaya's mix of smaller regional and national parties made coalition-building a fixture of the state's politics by this point.