Pro-India Tories Returned In British Elections

LONDON: Britain's Conservative party confounded pollsters and pundits by unexpectedly winning an absolute majority in the House of Commons to earn the right to govern the United Kingdom for five more years - this time by themselves and not in coalition with any other party.

The Conservatives are the most pro-India party in British politics. Their election manifesto committed to supporting India's permanent membership of the UN Security Council and achieving a free trade agreement between India and the European Union. In contrast, no other party, including the Labour party, which has historically been closer to India, made any reference to India.

Indian-origin voters, though, bucked the trend by mostly continuing to support Labour. Constituencies with large Indian-origin electorates re-elected the Vaz siblings Keith and Valerie, Virendra Sharma and Seema Malhotra - all Labour candidates

An analyst attributed the Labour leadership's silence on India to their heavy dependence on voters of Pakistani-origin. In the past, Labour has raised questions about India's alleged human rights violations in the north Indian state of Jammu & Kashmir.

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