Neeraj Patil, first Kannadiga to stand in British parliamentary election, loses to Justine Greening

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Dr. Neeraj Patil who lost to Justine Greening in the British Parliamentary elections held on June 8.
Dr. Neeraj Patil who lost to Justine Greening in the British Parliamentary elections held on June 8.

The first Kannadiga ever to stand in the British Parliamentary elections, Neeraj Patil lost to Justine Greening, a Conservative Party candidate and the Education Minister of Britain, in the polls held on June 8. A native of Kamalapur in Kalaburagi district and former Mayor of London Borough of Lambeth, Dr. Neeraj was selected by the Labour Party to represent the constituency of Putney considering his service as an emergency doctor at St George’s Hospital in London, used by the residents of Putney.

Dr. Patil lost by a narrow margin of 1,554 votes to Ms. Greening who secured 20,679 of 46,894 the votes polled. Though there were six candidates in the fray, the fight was between Mr. Patil and Ms. Greening. Liberal Democrats candidate Ryan Mercer polled 5448 votes followed by Green Party candidate Benjamin Joseph Fletcher (1,107), UK Independent Party candidate Patricia Mary Ward (447) and Independent candidate Catherine Jane Richardson (58). There were 112 invalid votes. The counting of the votes was held at Wandsworth council with James Maddan as returning officer of Putney constituency.

Addressing the gathering after the vote-count, Dr. Patil congratulated Ms. Greening, who has been retaining the seat since 2005 and thanked the Labour Party for selecting him to run for the British Parliament. Mr. Keith Vaz, the longest serving Labour MP of Indian origin, campaigned for Dr. Patil in Putney constituency.

Dr. Patil is attributed to have played an instrumental role in getting the statue of the 12th century philosopher and social reformer Basavanna installed at the Albert Embankment Gardens in the London Borough of Lambeth. He was honoured with “The Rajyotsava Award” by the Government of Karnataka in 2008.

Labour Party had selected 14 Indians, Conservative party 13 and Liberal Democrats 9, respectively as their Parliamentary candidates. The general elections were called following the Brexit referendum by Prime Minister Theresa May.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Karnataka / by Kumar Buradikatti / Kalaburagi – June 09th, 2017

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