Friday, May 7, 2010

Labour Loses but Rushanara Ali Wins the Election

It is a historic day for all the people of Bangladeshi origin living in the UK. One of their very own, Rushanara Ali has become the first first Bangladesh-born Member of Parliament in the country. She secured 21,792 votes and it was more than enough for her to win the Bethnal Green and Bow constituency and she will sit in House of Commons. It is a historic day for all Bangladeshi people living around the world. In the election, Ajmal Mashrur of Liberal Democrats came second and he could manage only 10,210 votes.
Abjal Mia of Respect Party managed to get only 8,532 votes and Zakir Khan of the Conservative Party had 7,071 votes.
It is notable that all the candidates of the 4 major parties were of Bangladeshi origin.
The success of Rushanara Ali has made many people happy in Bangladesh. 
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  1. Satyaki ChandaMay 14, 2010 at 6:54 AM

    As a Bengali too, although across the border in West Bengal while I am proud of Rushanara Ali’s election to the House of Commons, let me set a few historical facts right for all those who have proclaimed her as the first Bengali in the British Parliament.
    As far back as 1919 Sir Satyendra Prasanno Sinha was raised to the House of Lords as Baron Sinha of Raipur. The gates of his crumbling mansion on Calcutta’s Lord Sinha Road still has the coat of arms on it. It was a hereditary peerage, and so his descendant Arup Kumar Sinha has inherited the title and is, as I write, the 6th Baron in the line.
    More recently in 2004 Prof. Kumar Bhattacharya was nominated as a life peer to the House of Lords. Baron Bhattacharyya of course has the right to sit in the house, unlike Sinha, who like all hereditary peers were debarred from the House of Lords by Tony Blair’s reforms.
    But to Rushanara goes the credit of fighting her way through the ranks and entering with a popular mandate. My felicitations to her.
    Satyaki Chanda

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