UK General Election 2024: Voters of the Indian community are playing a very important role in the UK elections. Today (July 4) voting is also being held there for the post of Prime Minister. There are more than 18 lakh Indians in Britain. They are so important that to woo them, leaders had to worship in temples. Labour Party leader Keir Starmer and Conservative Party leader Rishi Sunak tried hard to woo them. Both leaders also went to worship in Swaminarayan temple. Now the question arises that which party the Indian voters are leaning towards. Read the full story.
This party supported India in independence
At the time of independence, Britain’s Labour Party helped India. In Britain, Labour Party leader Clement Attlee was the one who supported India’s independence. When India became independent in 1947, Britain was in power. Attlee’s decision was also criticized by Britain’s former PM Winston Churchill, who was from the Conservative Party at that time. After this incident, people of the Indian community started considering the Labour Party as good and the Conservatives as bad. Indians in Britain became Labour Party voters. In the 80s, the Conservative Party government came to power in Britain again. Margaret Thatcher became Britain’s first woman PM. She also organized a Diwali program in 1988 to attract Indian voters. She also came to India twice while being the Prime Minister. If the data is to be believed, by 2010, the population of Indians in Britain reached close to 15 lakhs.
Indian voters started playing a role in victory and defeat
The influence of Indians and the number of voters increased so much that they started playing an important role in the victory and defeat on many seats. In view of this, Conservative leader David Cameron gave tickets to many Hindus of Indian origin from councilor to MP in the 2010 general election. For the first time, the Conservative Party gave tickets to the maximum 17 Indian-origin candidates, most of whom were Hindus. In 2010, 61% of the votes of Indian-origin voters went to the Labor Party, which reached 30% in 2019. In 2019, the Conservative Party got 24% votes, in which the share of Hindu voters was the highest. Regarding this, political expert Professor Anand Menon says that the issues of Indian-origin people in Britain are not the same as before. They are divided on the basis of religion. The issues of British Hindus are not 70 years old. Their focus is now on issues like security, economy, development, religion and identity. Like BJP, the Conservative Party is also known for doing politics on these issues. Because of this, people who like the policies of India’s Modi government are influenced by the Conservative Party.
65 percent Indians are against Sunak
According to a YouGov report, 65% of Indian voters have turned against Sunak’s Conservative Party. The Indians included in the survey allege that Prime Minister Sunak did nothing for them during his one and a half year tenure. Strategists believed that due to Sunak being of Indian origin, Indians here would be inclined towards him, but Sunak now seems to be unsuccessful in this.