Indian-origin MP loses election in Britain

London, May 8 (IANS/RAY) Conservative party MP from Wolverthampton South-West Paul Uppal has lost his seat to Labour party candidate Rob Marris in the general elections held on Thursday.

He lost to Marris by less than 1,000 votes.

Wolverhampton South-West has a significant number of Sikh voters. The results confirm a trend that Sikh voters have either remained with the Labour - as in case of Virendra Sharma being re-elected in Ealing Southall - or returned to this party from the Conservatives.

The number of Indian-origin MPs is expected to remain around 10.

Pakistani-origin MPs will increase; and there is a Sri Lankan-origin MP in Ranil Jayawardena.

The tally of Bangladeshi MPs has gone up from one to three.

This includes Tulip Siddiq, grand-daughter of Bangladesh's founder Mujibur Rahman and niece of the present Bangladeshi prime minister, Sheikh Hasina. She won from London's Hampstead and Kilburn constituency.

In the overall results, the Conservatives are certain to emerge as the largest single party and come close to winning an absolute majority. This means David Cameron will continue as prime minister.

A major development, though, is the landslide victory achieved by Scottish Nationalists in Scotland, raising the spectre of another bid for independence by this separatist party.

The biggest casualty of the night were the Liberal Democrats, who were in coalition with the Conservatives for the past five years.