SONIA GANDHI

Constituency : Rae Bareli

Congress President Sonia Gandhi trounced Samajwadi Party candidate Ashok Singh by over 200,000 votes.

Italy-born Sonia Gandhi née Maino was forced into the hotbed of Indian politics after her husband, former Prime Minister and then Congress President Rajiv Gandhi, was assassinated in 1991. Only the eighth person of foreign origin to hold the office of President of the Congress party, the 57-year-old Sonia now looks forward to the prospect of becoming the first person of foreign origin, and the second Mrs Gandhi, to occupy the post of Prime Minister of the world's largest democracy.

Photographs: RAVEENDRAN/AFP/Getty Images