Brexit Party banks on Indian candidates
London, December 9
Britain’s Brexit Party, led by Nigel Farage as the far-right outfit pitching for a so-called hard exit from the European Union (EU), has managed to attract a large number of Indian-origin candidates to contest the General Election on Thursday.
Prominent Faces
- Punjab-born Surjit Singh Duhre, Dr Kulvinder Singh Manik, Alka Sehgal Cuthbert, Sachin Sehgal, Parag Shah, Kailash Trivedi, Munish Sharma, Sudhir Sharma, Raj Singh Chaggar, Viral Parikh and Vishal Dilip Khatri are among the Indian-origin candidates who are holding the Brexit Party’s flag high in the impending general election
- They are all contesting Labour strongholds with a slim chance of victory but are fighting to attract the pro-Brexit vote
The key platform of the party, formed in January this year, is for a “clean break” from the 28-member economic bloc to trade on World Trade Organisation (WTO) norms and have been opposed to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s deal as “unacceptable”.
This message is being amplified by many of its nearly a dozen Indian-origin candidates, including a UK-born doctor whose family originally hails from India before migrating to Kenya and then the UK.
“The UK has become the Jewel in the Crown of the European Raj,” says Dr Kulvinder Singh Manik, who is contesting from Bradford South in northern England – a Labour Party stronghold.
The 47-year-old had voted to remain in the EU in the 2016 Referendum but has since changed his mind and says his family is fully behind his anti-Brexit stance.
Punjab-born Surjit Singh Duhre, contesting a similar Labour stronghold of Doncaster Central, claimed receiving death threats on the campaign trail and had to be convinced by party leader Farage not to quit the race.
“I’ve been told I’m a racist, a traitor and a Judas just because I’m standing for the Brexit Party,” says 64-year-old Duhre, a former Labour Party member.
Ironically, despite being perceived as a party which is predominantly anti-immigration, it has managed to attract numerous candidates from immigrant communities. Among them is educationist Alka Sehgal Cuthbert, who had also contested the European Parliament elections earlier this year. — PTI
