Surendran B, NetaData

The people of Tamil Nadu, a southern Indian state with a deep and rich history, made a dramatic U-turn in the just-concluded election. For the first time in more than three decades, they chose to keep the AIADMK government, ruled by Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, in office.

Here are 4 charts that explain why this is historic.

1. For the first time in 3 decades, an incumbent party has won an election. This year also saw the lowest seat difference between the two coalitions.

2. This election also saw an interesting consolidation. The seats were all shared only by four parties. They are:

AIADMK: 134

DMK: 89

INC: 8

IMUL: 1

3. But the challenger, DMK, was not comprehensively defeated. Both the leading parties (coalitions) got an almost equal vote share. This is again a first for the state.

4. The two communist parties (CPI & CPM) got their lowest ever vote share at .8% and .7% respectively.

This election also saw the national parties score the second-lowest vote share in the last 3 decades, though the BJP’s performance has marginally improved.

5. Bonus Chart 

A number of regional parties that got a lot of press during the election were wiped out.

Editor’s Note: The data from the charts have been sourced from the Election Commission.

This article first appeared on NetaData and can be found here.

update: An error has been corrected.