Sonia re-elected with record margin

Rae Bareli: Congress President Sonia Gandhi was yesterday re-elected from here with a record margin of 417,888 votes.

Despite the all-time low voter turnout of only 43 per cent in Monday's voting, Sonia garnered the bulk of the votes, and her two key opponents Vinay Katiyar of the Bharatiya Janata Party and Raj Kumar Chaudhary of the ruling Samajwadi Party lost their security deposits.

The Congress president had resigned from this seat in March after she was accused of holding an office of profit, barred for elected public representatives under the constitution, necessitating the re-election.

While her victory was a foregone conclusion, the poor voter turnout led to speculation about a possible fall in her victory margin of 240,000 votes that she had scored in the 2004 general election.

Sonia Gandhi's daughter and election agent Priyanka Gandhi attributed the success to her brother Rahul Gandhi who had led the campaign in the constituency.

"All credit goes to my brother Rahul who really worked very hard and went from door to door canvassing for our mother," Priyanka Gandhi said.

Rahul Gandhi, an MP himself, said: "I was given a job, and I am happy that it has been done."

"It is the victory of my mother's dedication for her constituency and I would like to thank the party workers as well as the people of Rae Bareli for once again reposing their faith in my mother in such a big way" he said.

Accompanied by former MP Satish Sharma, Rahul, Priyanka and her husband Robert Vadra led a victory procession as the election result gave way to a festive ambience in this rural constituency that has been mostly represented by one or the other member of the Gandhi family or their relatives.

Jubilant party workers and supporters threw colours at one another even as the young Gandhis roamed around with colours on their faces, acknowledging greetings of teeming masses.

In New Delhi, hundreds of Congress supporters went ecstatic at the Congress headquarters here yesterday soon after the news came in that Sonia had won the Rai Bareli parliamentary by-election by a huge margin. People were seen singing, dancing and cheering at the Akbar Road office.

"We knew that Soniaji will win the elections and so made elaborate arrangements for celebrations," said Syed Qamaruddin, who had come from Akola district of Maharashtra in anticipation of the victory.

"It is like a festival for us because the message is clear that the country is standing in support of Sonia, no matter how much rivals are trying to create problems for her," said Shabnam Riyaz, a supporter from Sultanpuri here.