Photo: V. Sudershan

TROUNCES RIVALS: Congress president Sonia Gandhi waves to supporters in New Delhi on Thursday after her victory from the Rae Bareli constituency.

Rae Bareli: Sonia Gandhi on Thursday recorded her biggest-ever electoral triumph by winning the Rae Bareli Lok Sabha by-election with a margin of over 4.17 lakh votes. It has come less than seven weeks after resigning in the face of a shrill Opposition attack over the office-of-profit issue.

Ms. Gandhi, who resigned the seat on March 23 facing disqualification petitions that she was holding an office of profit by being chairperson of the National Advisory Council (NAC), romped home comfortably by securing 4,74,891 of the 5,90,026 votes polled in a low turnout of 43 per cent in this backward rural constituency. She had also quit the NAC post.

The 59-year-old, Italy-born widow of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi trounced a total of 15 rivals, including those from the Samajwadi Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party, who all lost their security deposits. She recorded the highest victory margin by any candidate in Rae Bareli so far, including Rajiv Gandhi, Indira Gandhi and Feroze Gandhi. Her margin of victory in the 2004 general elections in the same constituency was over 2.48 lakh votes.

The record for the highest margin in any polls was clocked by Communist Party of India (Marxist) MP Anil Basu, who won by over 5.92 lakh votes in Arambagh in West Bengal in 2004. Ram Vilas Paswan had won by a margin of 5.05 lakh votes from Hajipur in Bihar in the 1989 elections and the late Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao had a victory margin of more than 5.80 lakh votes in the 1991 by-election in the Nandyal seat in Andhra Pradesh.

It was only a token fight in Rae Bareli by Ms. Gandhi's opponents, including the Samajwadi Party's Raj Kumar Chowdhury (57,003 votes) and the BJP's firebrand leader Vinay Katiyar (19,657). Uma Bharti-supported Apna Dal candidate Prabha Singh trailed far behind.

The Nehru-Gandhi family or persons close to it have so far won the Rae Bareli seat in 14 of the 17 elections held there since 1952. The BJP bagged the constituency only twice in 1996 and 1998 while the late Raj Narayan, riding on the crest of the Janata Party wave, humbled former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1977. Sonia Gandhi had shifted to this constituency in the last Lok Sabha election from adjoining Amethi, which she vacated for her son Rahul. — PTI

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