LUCKNOW, May 17 -- For nearly two decades, the political arithmetic of eastern Uttar Pradesh's Bhadohi district revolved around one man - former MLA and strongman Vijay Mishra. Governments changed, parties rose and fell, caste alliances shifted repeatedly, but the control over the Gyanpur assembly seat largely remained with the Mishra family.

On Friday, that long-running political empire suffered perhaps its biggest collapse yet after a Bhadohi MP/MLA court sentenced Vijay Mishra, his wife and former MLC Ramlali Mishra, and son Vishnu Mishra to 10 years of imprisonment each in a six-year-old land grab and fraud case, while his daughter-in-law Rupa Mishra was awarded four-year jail term. The court also imposed a fine of Rs.50,000 on each ...