Southall By-Election Nears

Ealing Southall

From: Playing Against The Spin

Accusations of links to overseas separatist organisations, affiliations with genocidal regimes, foreign fascist organisations, defections, Sikh puritanism, donations to rival political parties and tacky Asian radio stations.

What doesn’t this by-election have?

A Southall resident told me that she wouldn’t be surprised if a drive-by shooting takes place in Southall in relation to this Thursday’s election.

It is very much a campaign of polarities, and nowhere more has this been evidenced than on the internet.

On the one hand we have diehard liberals such as Sunny Hundal and his cronies accusing pretty much every Sikh involved of being a theocratic monster whose ultimate goal is the establishment of a Sikh State.

On the other hand we have had The Sikh Federation and their cohorts spamming blogs and message boards with calls for a ‘visible turbaned Sikh’ to be put forward by New Labour.

And today new videos have emerged on YouTube accusing Labour candidate Virendra Kumar Sharma of having links with the 1984 genocide of Sikhs in India and the more recent desecration of the Babri Masjid in Ayodyha.

This is an election in which the Sikh vote is crucial.

But which way will it swing?

It is not as simple an answer as in previous elections, where Labour were expected to bag the vast majority of Sikh votes.

Although there are an innumerable set of social, religious and political differences that separate the Sikh vote, all of which would require a detailed analyses, the vote can be broadly split in to four blocks:

1 Punjabi Sikh vote – majority will probably vote Labour.
2 Afghan Sikh vote – they are rapidly becoming a force in Southall, but their vote is uncertain.
3 Gurdwara endorsement Sikh vote – some Gurdwaras are backing Sharma, but their clout is negligible.
4 Traditional Sikh vote for Labour – this has to have taken a blow with the defections of so many Councillors.

The successful candidate will, in my opinion, have to woo numbers 1, 2 and 4.

Although some people are predicting a comfortable Labour win, the Independents may see some success, especially Jasdev Singh Rai. Although an Independent is highly unlikely to win, the votes they snatch from Labour will give the Tories, who have posited a now disgraced Tony Lit as candidate, a boost.

With Sharma being vilified and Lit shooting himself in the head, all is up for grabs.