An outsider in the Mayoral race

By Thomas Abraham

LONDON, APRIL. 4. As a handful of bemused tourists looked on, a cluster of purple baloons bearing the words ``Ram's the man for London'' floated into the grey sky above Trafalgar Square. This, however, was not the start of an Ayodhya type crusade in the British capital. It marked the launch of the election campaign of Mr. Ram Gidoomal, the only candidate of Indian origin standing for Mayor of London.

Mr. Gidoomal, 49, a bearded figure who gave up a lucrative business career 10 years ago to devote himself to charity work, is clearly an outsider in a race that has been dominated by the Labour party rebel, Mr. Ken Livingstone and the official Labour candidate, Mr. Frank Dobson. But Mr. Gidoomal, who has a long track record in voluntary work, hopes to make an impact by tapping the ethnic vote in London. This is an important vote bank: one in four Londoners belongs to an ethnic minority.

At present, London is one of the few major cities in the world which does not have its own Mayor. Elections will be held on May 4 to elect the city's first Mayor and an Assembly for the city. Though he has received virtually no publicity in the media and the opinion polls do not even register his presence in the Mayoral race, Mr. Gidoomal is optimistic. ``Just think of Jeffrey Archer,'' he says, referring to the former Conservative candidate for Mayor who was forced to resign in ignominious circumstances. ``He spent years campaigning to become Mayor. Where is he now? I think the race is wide open.''

Mr. Gidoomal's rags-to-riches story is an asset in a city like London which values entreprenuership and dynamism. He arrived in London from Kenya as a teenager with his family in 1966. The Gidoomal family had been wealthy in Kenya but had to start from scratch in London. Launching his campaign, he announced ``six pledges for London'', including economic regeneration of the poorer parts of the city, better transport, more transparent city government and elimination of discrimination in public bodies. These are, however, the kind of pledges that jaded Londoners are used to hearing from all their Mayoral candidates. Mr. Gidoomal will have to bag a sizable chunk of the ethnic vote if he is to make an impact.

His candidacy is also unusual because he is running on the platform of a recently-formed Christian People's Alliance, a fledgling group party which models its policies and ideology on the European Christian Democratic parties. Mr. Gidoomal himself is a devout church-goer, having converted to Christianity and his public espousal of Christian values is unusual in a country where religion has long been kept out of politics. ``As Christian Democrats, our goal is to be passionate about social justice, racial reconciliation and the regeneration of divided communities,'' he declared in a speech launching his candidacy.

Mr. Gidoomal is confident of getting support from the ethnic minorities in the capital though many feel that his campaign has had a late start. The main political parties announced their candidates a few months ago. But Mr. Gidoomal is unfazed. Backed by an enthusiastic team of young volunteers and an increasing flow of funds from well wishers, Mr. Gidoomal is positive he can make an impact on the polls.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : International
Previous : West draws varying responses from them
Next     : Putin to take office tomorrow