leader of the opposition Mulayam Singh Yadav, and other ganglords and hardened criminals (see Criminal-Politicians below). In many of these instances, opposition campaigners did not feel safe enough to put up a vibrant campaign, and in some situations, the mainstream parties reached alliances with the criminals and did not put up serious competition (e.g., Mukhtar Ansari). 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. Here Mohd. Mustaba Siddiqi of the Bahujan Samaj Party (38280 votes, 29.41%) defeated Mohd. Ayub of the Samajwadi Party (32739/25.15%). Alleged and convicted criminal-politicians who won Samajwadi Party Mukhtar Ansari, (Independent, supported by Samajwadi Party): won as (Independent) from Mau, while he was in Jhansi jail, facing charges in the murder of BJP ganglord-MLA from Ghazipur, Krishnanand Rai. His brother Afzal Ansari became the Lok Sabha MP from Ghazipur, after Krishnanand Rai was killed, and is also in jail for the murder, which was apparently executed by the Munna Bajrangi gang which is known to be close to the Ansari's. Mukhtar is named in 29 criminal cases (the third highest in these elections), but is close to Mulayam Singh Yadav, and the Samajwadi Party did not put up a candidate against him. He also is said to be close to Sonia Gandhi's Indian National Congress party, who put up only a dummy candidate, Gopal, against him; Gopal garnered only three thousand votes and lost his deposit. A large faction of the Mau Congress executive committee members had resigned en masse to protest against choosing such a dummy candidate. 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 Currently lodged at Gorakhpur Jail, where his case might take a long time to come to trial. He won the Lakshmipur Constituency seat in Gorakhpur District by a margin of nearly 20 thousand votes (12%). Raghuraj Pratap Singh (Independent, supported by Samajwadi Party/Bharatiya Janata Party): alias Raja Bhaiyya, with 35 criminal cases filed against him. Raja Bhaiyya is from the princely family of Kunda. A skull found in a palace pond allegedly belongs to scooterist Santosh Misra