Uma Kumaran is walking the talk. Dressed in a red sari, she is visiting a Hindu temple in London. The 28-year-old Labour candidate for Harrow East is not just there to pray. She is there for votes.

In the coastal town of Portsmouth in southern England, Suella Fernandes stands with locals and discusses jobs and businesses. The 35-year-old barrister was elected as the Conservative parliamentary candidate for Fareham after she beat challenges from local Tory heavyweights.

Meanwhile, Tulip Siddiq, the Labour candidate in the well-heeled borough of Hampstead and Kilburn, is taking nothing for granted. She has to fill the seat vacated by Oscar-winning actress Glenda Jackson in what is the most marginal seat in Britain. At the last election, Jackson retained her seat by just 42 votes.

The petite, soft-spoken Siddiq has thrown herself into the campaign, stressing that she has always lived locally and been a councillor in the neighbouring borough of Camden. "It's going very well," she says enthusiastically about her campaign for the May 7 election in the United Kingdom.

Up and down the country, South Asian women candidates from diverse backgrounds have entered the political fray like never before. They are knocking on doors, giving speeches at town halls and campaigning loud and clear. It is likely that this time as many as 12 Asian women will enter Westminster, more than double the five who got through in 2010 for the first time.

Ever since the election of Keith Vaz in the 1987 elections, making him the first South Asian in the House of Commons after Independence, south Asian men have started playing an active role in British politics. Five of the 10 South Asian men in the last Parliament were of Indian origin.

And now, the region's women are making their presence felt.

"You need a tough skin and sharp elbows," laughs Kumaran. "It is a male-dominated arena. You have to have a louder voice." She feels it is more important than ever to get women into politics, pointing out that there have been fewer than 370 female MPs in the entire history of the British Parliament.

They all have their campaign styles. Siddiq has taken full advantage of star power. Her campaign is backed by Hampstead's famous residents such as actor Emma Thomson and her husband Greg Wise and authors Kathy Lette and Bonnie Greer. Nor does she lack spunk. When London Mayor Boris Johnson arrived on Kilburn High Road to campaign for the Conservatives, Siddiq photo-bombed him with a Labour banner. The photograph of the five-foot Siddiq jostling the Mayor made it to the local press. Johnson wasn't amused.

Siddiq has politics in her blood - she is the granddaughter of Bangladesh's first Prime Minister Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and niece of the present Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina. But she has kept her political connections with Bangladesh on a low key, wanting to be known on her own terms.

Her mother, Sheikh Rehana, was in Germany when Rahman was assassinated on August 15, 1975. She took asylum in London and later married a PhD student. Tulip was only 16 when her father suffered a stroke and became wheelchair bound.

It was the National Health Service (NHS) that took care of him, and it was this institution that drew Siddiq into politics and into the folds of the Labour Party. The NHS is one of the main issues in this election, apart from immigration, the economy, jobs, welfare and benefit cuts.

"I went into politics to make a difference and protect public services," Siddiq says.

The turbulent politics of the sub-continent also shaped Uma Kumaran's life. Her parents, Thurai and Ruth Kumaran, fled the civil war in Sri Lanka and arrived in Britain in 1981. She saw her parents' campaign for human rights for Tamils and joined them at the rallies.

"My parents came with few possessions and little money. They really struggled here doing two to three jobs to rebuild their lives," Kumaran says. Helped by a Labour MP, her parents were housed in Harrow where she grew up. She went to Queen Mary University in London and started working for the NHS looking after 66 trusts.

When her father had a heart attack, it was the NHS that saved him. "It was what drew me into politics," Kumaran says.

Representing a multi-ethnic area like Harrow East has its own challenges. Politics from the subcontinent often spills over into the constituency. At a public meeting in a local school, she was attacked about Labour policy on Kashmir (the Labour party has always been vocal about human right abuse in the Valley).

"Ultimately, black or white, the issues are local - healthcare, jobs, housing - and these are my priorities," says Kumaran, who has to defeat the sitting Conservative MP Bob Blackman, who won the seat with 3,403 votes in 2010.

For Suella Fernandes, being a Conservative means achieving one's goals, irrespective of one's background. She was born in Harrow to parents of Goan origin - father Chris came from Kenya and mother Uma from Mauritius.

She had her first brush with elections when she was fielded as the Tory candidate against Labour's Vaz in Leicester East in 2005. She lost, but, undaunted by her formidable opponent, gave it her best fight. "I increased the number of Tory votes to the highest level," she says.

With Fareham she is guaranteed an easier ride.

"There is a lot of support for the Conservative party here, but you can't take anything for granted," she says.

While the Conservatives insist that their austerity measures have worked and that the economy is back on track, Labour has said it will not cut benefits for the poorest sections, reduce university fees, and increase funding for the NHS by raising extra taxes through a mansion tax -- on houses worth more than two million pounds -and a tax on rich individuals who live in Britain but register their main homes outside Britain in order to pay less taxes. All polls indicate that no party will win a majority.

Asked whether it was difficult being an Asian candidate in a largely white area, the Cambridge law graduate holds that it makes no difference. "I grew up and worked in London. Race was not an obstacle. The 21st century is about meritocracy and positive encouragement."

Nor is she afraid of speaking up for minority rights, this time for Christians in India. Her uncle, Father Ayres Fernandes, is a priest in Delhi. She reacts strongly when asked about the attacks on churches in India over the last few months. "It is horrendous," she says immediately.

With the prospective women parliamentarians not shy to fight for issues they care about, the new House of Commons can expect sparks to fly.