Indian-origin man in race to replace Boris Johnson as next British Prime Minister

Former finance minister and Indian-origin British MP Rishi Sunak has come out as a frontrunner in the race to replace Boris Johnson as Conservative Party leader and British Prime Minister after garnering 101 votes to yet again emerge as the winner of the latest voting round on Thursday.

Rishi Sunak received the most number of votes (101) to replace Boris Johnson as the Conservative Party leader and Prime Minister, followed by Penny Mordaunt, a junior trade minister, with 83 votes, and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss with 64 votes. Former equalities minister Kemi Badenoch came out fourth with 49 votes and chairman of the foreign affairs committee Tom Tugendhat was placed in the fifth spot with 32 votes.

Another Indian-origin candidate, attorney general Suella Braverman, who got the least number of votes in the second ballot, has been eliminated from the race. Rishi Sunak, who is the son-in-law of Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy, had topped the first round as well with 88 votes. The remaining five candidates face a third round of voting by Conservative members of parliament on Monday.

Thanking his supporters, Rishi Sunak posted on Twitter, “I am prepared to give everything I have in service to our nation. Together we can restore trust, rebuild our economy and reunite the country.” Despite being a favourite among Tory MPs, a YouGov poll of nearly 900 party members indicated Penny Mordaunt to be the frontrunner, beating any of the others in a run-off. Claiming a huge lead over Sunak, she is apparently now the bookies’ favourite to become the next PM.

The contest was triggered when Boris Johnson stepped down as leader of the Conservative Party last week, after dozens of ministers quit his government in protest of his leadership. He will remain in Downing Street as a caretaker prime minister until a new Tory leader is elected to replace him. “It is clearly the will of the parliamentary Conservative party that there should be a new leader of that party, and therefore a new prime minister,” Johnson had said following his resignation.