No majority in Travancore-Cochin's first election
What happened
Travancore-Cochin's first assembly election ended in a hung house — a result where no single party wins enough seats to govern alone.
The Indian National Congress won the most seats, 44 of the 108 seats on offer.
That was well short of the 55-seat majority mark.
Independent candidates came close behind, winning 37 seats combined.
What changed
This was Travancore-Cochin's first election for its own Legislative Assembly.
Some of that year's constituencies used a multi-member design, where the same contest sent more than one member to the assembly.
11 of the 97 constituencies worked this way.
Altogether, the constituencies elected 108 members.
Notable numbers
A few numbers from that first election stand out.
The closest race was Alengad, Travancore-Cochin, decided by a margin — how far ahead the winner finished, in votes, over whoever came second — of just 140 votes.
The widest win was in Thiruvattar, Travancore-Cochin, where the winner finished 59.8% ahead of the runner-up.
The highest turnout — the share of registered voters who actually cast a ballot — anywhere in the state was in Paravoor, Travancore-Cochin, at 84.6%.
The most crowded contest was Braniel, Travancore-Cochin, where 12 candidates stood for a single seat.
The backdrop
Travancore-Cochin itself had come into being only a few years earlier, formed by merging princely states.
The State of Travancore-Cochin was formed on 1 July 1949 through the merger of the princely states of Travancore and Cochin. The States Reorganisation Act, 1956 dissolved it on 1 November 1956; most of its territory became the new state of Kerala, with Tamil-majority areas transferred to Madras State.