Only did mother's job in earning her record win

Rae Bareli, May 11: With red colour smeared on their faces, AICC president Sonia Gandhi's MP son Rahul Gandhi, daughter Priyanka and son-in-law Robert Vadra emerged from the counting centre to celebrate the landslide victory of Ms Gandhi.

Even as jubilant party workers burst crackers, Rahul, Ms Gandhi's campaign manager, said he only did what his mother had asked him to do. ''The winning margin was not the focus...I only did what my mother assigned me with.'' In her reaction, a visibly over-joyed Priyanka said she foresaw Rahul playing a major role in long-term Indian polity. ''I depended on workers and the people of the constituency...it worked,'' Rahul said. To this Priyanka said she was happy what Rahul had achieved.

The Gandhi siblings were interacting with reporters after the results were announced.

The three, Rahul, Priyanka and Robert, later took to streets to thank the electorate. Perched atop a SUV, they shook hands with people, who had gathered on either side of the road.

Ms Gandhi today won by a margin of 4,17,888 votes, the highest ever victory margin by a member of the Nehru-Gandhi clan.

The voter turnout although remained a meagre 42.6 per cent with heatwave and marriages keeping people away from polling booths.

Congress also attributed the low turnout to the absence of menfolk who work as migrant labourers in Punbjab, Haryana and Karnataka.

Rahul had launched Ms Gandhi's election campaign on April 25, days after Ms Gandhi filed nomination for the bypoll. Rahul had used 'nukkad' or corner meetings to campaign for the AICC chief.

He constantly targetted the Mulayam Singh Yadav government for ignoring the development of Rae Bareli. ''They think the development of Rae Bareli would only give political milegae to Ms Gandhi,'' he had said frequently.

Ms Gandhi too toured the constituency for two days and addressed as-many-as five public meetings, one each in all five assembly segments of the LS constituency.

Akin to 2004 general elections, Priyanka Vadra was appointed Ms Gandhi's election agent this time. She toured the entire constituency on the May 8 polling day and interacted with voters.

UNI