A closer, still-hung result
What happened
Communist Party of India (Marxist) held onto the most seats in the assembly, but once again fell short of governing alone.
In West Bengal, the CPM won 113 of the 279 seats — again a hung house, a result where no single party wins enough seats to govern alone.
Its closest rival, the Indian National Congress, won 105 seats, 32.9% against 29.2% in the vote.
What changed
The single most common seat-by-seat shift ran opposite to the overall result.
14 seats moved from the CPM to the INC, the single largest party-to-party swing of the year.
Even so, 142 of the 279 seats changed hands in all, and the CPM grew its own total from 80 seats to 113.
Notable numbers
A few numbers from that count stand out.
The tightest finish: Khargram, West Bengal was decided by just 19 votes — the smallest margin, how far ahead the winner finished, in votes, over whoever came second, of any seat that year.
Raniganj, West Bengal had the widest winning margin of the year, at 52.3% of the vote.
Turnout — the share of registered voters who actually cast a ballot — was lowest in Jorabagan, West Bengal, at 30.8%.
Falakata, West Bengal drew the largest field of the year, 8 candidates on one ballot.
The backdrop
This was the second election in a row where neither the leading party nor its wider coalition reached a majority on its own.
The Left alliance — a group of parties that team up to fight an election together, and share power afterward if they win enough seats between them — held 126 seats in all, still short of the 140 needed to govern outright.