Ealing Southall By-Election

Tomorrow, 19th, is the day for voting in the Ealing-Southall By-Election. What a contest! Probably the best by-election for years. The place is not short of surprises. The Tory candidate, Tony Lit, fast-tracked into the Conservative Party, having been cheek-by-jowel with Tony Blair at a fundraising bash only last month. Mr. Tony (TB that is!) went off with a cheque for £4,800 to put into New Labour's coffers. David Cameron was aware of all this and seems unperturbed.

Meanwhile Ming Campbell is hoping Nigel will pull off something for the LibDems. New Labour has had a load of councillors defect to the Tories. And George Galloway is in town to raise the temperature. There's an Official Raving Loony and a few unofficial ones. Any bets on this bunfight could prove worthwhile, as anything could happen. Dr. Jasdev Singh Rai, Independent, is putting up a strong fight. Of the other two independents, well their tents have folded. Gulbash Singh is in the Tory marquee now, and Kuldeep Singh Grewal is hitched to the guy ropes of the New Labour Big Tent. The only sure thing is that the Labour Party's vote last time is up for grabs.

Nigel Bakhai, Liberal Democrats
John Sydney Cartwright, The Official Monster Raving Loony Party
Sati Chaggar, English Democrats - 'Putting England First!'
Salvinder Singh Dhillon, Respect - Peace, Justice, Equality
Sarah Janet Edwards, Green Party
Kuldeep Singh Grewal, Independent
Tony Lit, David Cameron's Conservatives
Yakub Masih, Christian Party 'Proclaiming Christ's Lordship'
Jasdev Singh Rai, Independent
KT Rajan, UK Independence Party
Virendra Kumar Sharma, The Labour Party Candidate
Gulbash Singh, Independent


If asked who I thought would win, I'd say anyone could. Labour could just hang on. Tony Lit could win because votes go in all directions from Labour. If six candidates got roughly even numbers of votes, the winner could be in on less than 25%. Not likely, but a casual observation says that New Labour has upset the local community and the cards haven't settled on the table yet.

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