A Commons Factor:

The growing visibility of Indians in the UK polls reflects their heft at several levels

Chloe Morrison can’t wait to exercise her franchise in the forthcoming British general elections. A resident of Ealing and Southall borough in London, she is chafed by the controversial plans to strip the local hospital, the only one for miles, of accident and emergency services (A&E). But Chloe and hundreds of her fellow residents are pinning their hopes on a man who is staunchly campaigning to save the crucial A&E services from the axe—their local Conservative candidate Gurcharan Singh.

The 61-year-old devout Sikh is one of the longest serving local councillors in London and just one of the many Indian faces who are set to alter the British political landscape next month. Gurcharan had arrived in Britain four decades ago,  with just three sterling pounds in his pocket and a degree in Mathematics. “I had thought myself to be lucky when I got a job as a trainee guard at the Southall train station. At that time I had never thought I would aspire to be the MP of the same area,” says Gurcharan, who comes from a modest farming family in Uttar Pradesh

As the three main national parties—Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrats—engage in the battle of the hustings on May 6, the key to tipping the political scale on any side may well lie in the hands of Indians like Gurcharan. Together, the three parties have fielded 40 candidates of  Indian descent. Add to this number those who are contesting as Independents or for smaller political parties unlikely to win, and you have an unprecedented number of over 50 candidates who belong to a community that constitutes just 1.8 per cent of the British population.

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