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UK Polls: How Did Indian-Origin Candidates Fare? 

There were 59 candidates in the 2015 UK elections. How did they fare?

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So David Cameron has done one better than 2010 and is returning to 10 Downing Street as PM. But how have the Indian-origin candidates, 59 of them, fared?

Not too well, as it turns out.

Among the three major parties, the Conservatives had 17 Indian-origin contestants, Labour had 15 and while the Liberal Democrats fronted 8.

Labour (4/15)

Virendra Sharma -Won

Seema Malhotra- Won

Tulip Siddiq - Hampstead and Kilburn - Won

Rupa Huq - Ealing Central and Acton - Won

Bally Singh - Kenilworth and Southam - Lost

Charanjeet (Chaz) Singh - South West Devon - Lost

Naushabah Khan - Rochester and Strood - Lost

Tanmanjit Singh Dhesi – Gravesham - Lost

Azhar Ali – Pendle - Lost

Sachin Patel - Richmond Park - Lost

Ibrahim (Ibby) - Old Bexley and Sidcup - Lost

Uma Kumaran - Harrow East - Lost

Bilal Mahmood - Chingford and Woodford Green - Lost

Anawar Miah - Welwyn Hatfield - Lost

Virendra Sharma: Won

Sharma left India in 1968 and became a bus conductor on the 207 route in London. Later, he studied at the London School of Economics on a trade union scholarship.

He started his political career by joining the Liberal Party, then switched to Labour in later years. Sharma was elected as MP in the Ealing Southall by-election in 2007. He held on to the seat again at the 2010 UK Polls.

He is a local school governor at Three Bridges and Wolf Field schools in London.

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Seema Malhotra: Won


Seema is already a sitting MP for Labour and has now won for the second time.

Born and raised in London, she is a former management consultant who worked for Accenture and PriceWaterhouseCoopers. She is married to the senior managing director of Accenture, Sushil Saluja.

In August 2014 she was given the newly-created role of Shadow Minister for Preventing Violence Against Women and Girls by Ed Miliband, leader of the Labour Party.


Conservatives (2/17)

Rishi Sunak - Won

Nus Ghani - Won

Amandeep Singh Bhogal - Lost

Arun Photay - Lost

Suria Photay - Lost

Vidhi Mohan  - Lost·

Natasha Asghar – Lost·

Altaf Hussain – Lost·

Kishan Devani – Lost·

Samir Jassal – Lost·

Simon Nayyar – Lost·

Chamali Fernando – Lost·

Suhail Rahuja – Lost·

Gurcharan Singh – Lost·

Bob Dhillon - Lost

Rishi Sunak: Won

While his father-in-law, Narayana Murthy had rejected former Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s offer to join the government in 1999, Rishi is aspiring to step into the shoes of former UK Foreign Secretary, William Hague.

The 34-year-old Oxford University and Stanford MBA graduate co-founded a London-based global investment firm –The Children’s Investment Fund Management (UK) LLP and entered politics in 2014.

Born and raised in Hampshire, on the southern coast of England, his father is a doctor, and his mother ran her own chemist shop while he was growing up.

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Nus Ghani: Won

This Indian-origin Conservative Party candidate from the Wealden Constituency, East Sussex claims she was first woman in her family to go to college and university.

Her father Abdhul Ghani served as a school master in Kashmir in the 1960s. Her family moved to Birmingham in the 70s.

I became the first women in my family to go to college and university. First at University Central England/Birmingham City University followed by Leeds University, graduating with a Masters in International Relations.
– Nus Ghani


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Arun Photay and Suria Photay: Lost

Arun and Suria are both barristers by profession. Arun has in the past been a councillor at the Wolverhampton City Council (2012 - at Present), while Suria works at a local law firm in Wolverhampton.


Amandeep Singh Bhogal: Lost

The 31-year-old Sikh politician was the first Indian-origin candidate to contest in the UK General Elections from Northern Ireland. He contested from the Upper Bann constituency in the heart of Northern Ireland.

Amandeep Singh Bhogal, who was born in Jalandhar, moved to Northern Ireland in 2012, after spending his initial years in Kent.

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Liberal Democrats (0/8)

Anita prabhakar-Lost

Gita Gordon-Lost

Satnam Khalsa-Lost

Pramod Subbaraman-Lost

Shweta Kapadia-Lost

Reetendra Nath Banerj-Lost

Dr Victor Babu-Lost

Kavya Kaushik- Lost

Gita Gordon: Lost

Born in India, Gita speaks fluent Hindi, Punjabi, Urdu and has a working knowledge of Bengali. Born and raised in Kolkata, Gordon has been living in Blackpool for the last 10 years.


Kavya Kaushik: Lost

Born in London, Kaushik has studied Politics and Literature from the University of Aberdeen, Scotland. She also completed her education at the Administration Économie et Sociale (Economic and Social Administration) from Université Rennes II in Upper Brittany, France.

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