UK polls: Virendra Sharma retains seat; Uppal, Dhesi on the losing side
Saturday, 09/05/2015
http://paper.hindustantimes.com/epaper/viewer.aspx
LONDON: Punjabi-origin Labour candidate Virendra Sharma retained his Ealing Southall seat on Friday in the British elections in which the Indianorigin electorate shifted in favour of the Tory party.
Several Indian-origin candidates, including Keith Vaz, Priti Patel and Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy’s son-in-law were also elected to the British Parliament. Indian-origin voters have connected more with Labour traditionally due to its working-class- and immigrantfriendly outlook but the new results signal a change.
Among the people of Indian origin (PIOs), prominent Labour candidates such as long-serving MPs Virendra Sharma and Keith Vaz (Leicester East) have won their respective seats because of special connect with a largely Indian-origin electorate in their constituencies. Ruling Conservatives’ stalwart and British PM David Cameron’s Indian diaspora champion Priti Patel also retained Witham seat with a 41.5% majority.
Opposition Labour’s Valerie Vaz retained her Walsall South seat and Seema Malhotra won her Southwest London seat comfortably. Infosys co-founder’s son-in-law Rishi Sunak, contesting from the Tory safe seat of Richmond (Yorks) in the north of England, won 27,744 votes. His nearest opponent, Matthew Cooke of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), polled a mere 8,194.
But it was not all smooth sailing for Indian-origin Tory candidates, with Paul Uppal losing by a narrow margin to Labour. In the same Wolverhampton region, brother-sister duo Arun and Suria Photay also failed to make their first-time mark.
There were 59 Indian-origin candidates in the fray. The Conservative Party had fielded first-ever Sikh candidate in Northern Ireland, Amandeep Singh Bhogal, but he failed to make any mark, finishing last with just 201 votes in a DUP stronghold.
