A change at the top, still no majority
What happened
A different party topped Uttar Pradesh's seat count this time, in a hung house — a result where no single party wins enough seats to govern alone.
Samajwadi Party won 143 of the 403 seats on offer.
Its nearest rival, the Bahujan Samaj Party, won 98 seats.
What changed
This was Uttar Pradesh's first election held with a smaller assembly, after part of the state became a separate state.
The winning party's own seat count grew, from 110 to 143.
The single biggest shift moved seats from the Bharatiya Janata Party to the SP: 43 constituencies changed that way.
Notable numbers
A few numbers from that election stand out.
The closest race was Dhanapur, Uttar Pradesh, decided by a margin — how far ahead the winner finished, in votes, over whoever came second — of just 26 votes.
At the other extreme, Kunda, Uttar Pradesh saw the winner's lead over the runner-up reach 75.9% of the vote — the widest margin of the election.
Turnout — the share of registered voters who actually cast a ballot — peaked in Thakurdwara, Uttar Pradesh, at 78.7%.
On average, 13.7 candidates contested each seat that year.
The backdrop
This extended a run of elections in Uttar Pradesh where no single party could govern without support from others.
Uttar Pradesh's own map had also just changed, with its northern hill districts carved off to form a new state.
The Uttar Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2000 took effect on 9 November 2000, creating the new state of Uttarakhand (initially named Uttaranchal) from Uttar Pradesh's northern hill districts. With that territory transferred, Uttar Pradesh's own assembly fell from 425 seats to 403 at its next general election.