By IANS
Lucknow : The charisma of the Gandhi siblings – Priyanka and Rahul – did work, at least in the family pocket borough of Rae Bareli-Amethi where seven of the 10 assembly seats under these two parliamentary constituencies were bagged by the Congress party.
The victory in the area is clearly a feather in the cap of the Gandhi siblings as the Congress had just two seats in its kitty there in the last state elections in 2002.
In Rae Bareli, where Priyanka Vadra had really concentrated her energies, the Congress party won four of the five seats.
The Dalmau assembly seat was won by Ajay Pal Singh of the Congress, Sareni by Ashok Singh, Sataon by Ram Ganesh Lodhi and Bachrawan by Raja Ram. Only one seat has been retained by independent Akhilesh Kumar Singh, for whom this is a third successive win.
Likewise, three out of Amethi's five assembly segments have gone to the Congress.
Congress nominees, Amita Singh, Ram Sewak and Shiv Balak had romped home from the Amethi, Jagdishpur and Salon assembly seatsrespectively. The Bahujan Samaj Party's C.P. Misra bagged the Gauriganj seat while Tiloi went to Samajwadi Party's Mayankeshwar Saran Singh.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi represents Rae Bareli and Rahul Gandhi the Amethi constituency in the Lok Sabha.