Extremely strict measures were enforced, bringing in 639 companies of paramilitary forces to prevent musclepower effects.

These include the elected Chief Minister Mayawati, who is facing embezzlement charges stemming from the Rs.175 crore (US$35 million) Taj Corridor Case, the leader of the opposition Mulayam Singh Yadav, and other ganglords and hardened criminals (see Criminal-Politicians below).

However, to some extent, these victories may also reflect a perception that these criminal politicians are able to deliver some level of well-being to their communities.

For example, the Soraon Assembly constituency in Allahabad district is one where all 11 candidates in the fray had criminal cases pending against them.

[4] Despite Mukhtar's muscle power however, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate Vijay Pratap managed to garner 42% of the vote, and Mukhtar won by seven thousand votes (47%) only[5] Currently lodged at Gorakhpur Jail, where his case might take a long time to come to trial.

[6] A number of other criminal politicians mentioned in the press, such as the new bandit queen Seema Parihar, wife of the slain dacoit Nirbhay Gujjar,[16] do not appear on the candidate lists, and may have been removed due to irregularities in their nomination papers or otherwise.

A characteristic of the BSP win was the amalgamation of Brahmin votes into the Dalit dominated party,[21] an approach that has been called the rainbow coalition.

[22] This is the list of winners consolidated from the Election Commission of India party-wise results pages (ECI website).