Ahmedabad: After Preeti Patel, another Gujarati girl has entered the British Parliament, native Gujarati Shivani Raja has also won the UK general election. Shivani Raja's family is originally from Diu. Born in July 1994, Shivani is just 30 years old.
There was an incident of insult to the Indian national flag after the 2022 cricket match between India and Pakistan in Leicester. Shivani has benefited from the division of votes as a result of this tussle between Hindus and Muslims. Shivani Raja was a semi-finalist in the Miss India-UK contest in 2017.
Shivani's father came to the UK from Gujarat and mother from Kenya in the 1970s and settled in Rashi Mead. Shivani studied at Sour Valley College and then graduated in Pharmaceutical and Cosmetic Sciences from De Montfort University.
Shivani Raja won the Leicester East seat, where a large number of Indian population lives, on the ticket of Rishi Sunak's Conservative Party. Shivani contested elections for the first time. Shivani's victory has sent shock waves across Britain as the Leicester East seat is a stronghold of the Labor Party. Keith Vaz, who was the Indian-origin leader of the Labor Party for many years, won the seat. Keith Vaz, who has roots in Goa, was the MP from Leicester East for 32 consecutive years from 1987 to 2019. Claudia Webb of the Labor Party also won in 2019.
Shivani was pitted against Indian-origin leader and Labour Party candidate Rajesh Agarwal on the Leicester East seat. Former London Deputy Mayor Rajesh Agarwal's family hails from Indore. In this election, Shivani Raja got 14,526 votes while Dinesh Agarwal got 10,100 votes, Shivani won by 4,426 votes. Shivani's victory was confirmed when Zafar Haq of the Liberal Democrat Party got 6,329 votes, reducing the margin of votes of the Labour Party. Claudia Webb, the MP who won in 2019, finished fourth with 5,532 votes, while Keith Vaz, who was an MP for 32 consecutive years, finished fifth with just 3,681 votes.