8 Indians among 18 Asians elected to British Parliament

Setting a new record for representation of Asians in the UK, a record number of 18 candidates, including eight Indian-origins have made their way into the prestigious British House of Commons after emerging victorious in the just concluded UK parliamentary polls.

A record number of eight Indian-origin candidates including two women have been elected to the parliament. Another ten Asian candidates, mostly of Pakistan origin, have also won in the general election.

They included three Muslim women - all Labour - elected to the 650-member House of Commons.

Prominent among the Indian-origin candidate is Keith Vaz who has been re-elected from the Leicester East constituency for the sixth time, gaining a bigger vote than ever before.

Vaz won 53.76% of the vote, totalling 25,804 votes - up by more than 1,000 votes on his total for the 2005 General Election.

Other winners are Vaz's sister Valerie, a lawyer who won her seat of Walsall South in the West Midlands on a Labour ticket and Priti Patel, a Conservative candidate from Witham. Keith Vaz and his sister will be the first brother and sister to sit in the House of Commons at the same time.

Vaz said today, "It is truly an honour to have been re-elected to represent the people of Leicester East.

I will continue to do my very best to repay the confidence and trust that people have placed in me again.

I will continue to put the needs of Leicester first and fight for what Leicester rightly deserves.

I am delighted that Valerie has been elected, she will make an excellent MP and I look forward to debating int he Commons together."

Other NRI winning candidates are Virendra Sharma from Ealing Southall, Marsha Singh (Labour) from Bradford West, Shailesh Vara (Conservative) from Cambridgeshire North West, Aok Sharma (Conservative) from Reading West, and Paul Uppal (Conservative) from Wolverhampton South West.

Paramjit Dhanda, (Labour) is a prominent NRI former minister to lose from Gloucester constituency.

The first Muslim woman to win in the general election to the House of Commons is Shabana Mahmood, a barrister. She won from Birmingham Ladywood for Labour.

She increased the majority of outgoing former International Development Secretary Clare Short from under 7,000 votes to more than 10,000 votes. Rushnara Ali, who hailed from Bangladesh, won with a huge majority of 11,000 defeating Abjol Miah of Respect Party to third place in Bethnal Green and Bow. Lib Dems Ajmal Masroor came second.

Another Muslim woman to win is Yasmin Qureshi. She romped home from Bolton South East constituency in north-west England by a reduced majority of 8,600 votes.

Other victorious candidates were Transport minister in the Labour government Sadiq Khan from Tooting in south London, Khalid Mahmood (Labour) from Birmingham Perry Bar, Anas Sarwar (Labour) from Glasgow Central, Sajid Javid (Conservative) from Bromsgrove constituency, Rehman Chisti (Conservative) from Gillingham and Rainham constituency, Nadhim Zahawi,  (Conservative) from Strafford, central England and Chuka Umunna (Labour) from Streatham constituency.