British leaders eye Indian votes

London: May 6 ,2015: As the campaigning for the British parliamentary election enters its final phase, Prime Minister David Cameron and other leaders are eyeing undecided voters, especially among the 700,000 strong Indian community. The polling began at 7 a.m. (GMT) on Thursday (12.30 p.m. IST). Ironically, the fate of Britain - the oldest democracy in the world - is in the hands of a few thousand immigrants from its erstwhile colony India. Various surveys have predicted a hung parliament and the balance of power and future direction of the country could be decided by a single seat. Punters have predicted the size of the smallest winning margin in a single seat would be just 29 votes. The two main parties - Cameron's Conservatives and Ed Miliband's Labour - are neck-and-neck since the hustling started on March 30. Both have secured about 35 percent of votes in the surveys, which is not enough to muster the majority of seats in parliament. Both are predicted to win about 280 seats each in the 650-member House of Commons. Nick Clegg's central-left Liberal Democratic party, Cameron's coalition partner, can be the kingmaker, securing about 30 seats despite its erosion of support, especially among the young over the hiking of university tuition fees. The right-wing UK Independence Party is expected to bag just two or three seats but can be a spoiler for the Conservatives in many seats. The Scottish Nationalist Party, which has sought independence from the union, is predicted to win almost all the 59 seats in Scotland. A survey conducted by BBC Asian Network/ICM has shown that nearly a quarter of Asian voters are yet to make up their minds about the ballot. The survey also found that, of those who had decided, 39 percent said they may change their minds before polling day.