Prem and Alok Sharma

London, May 8: Prem Sharma, who suffered a heart attack on April 13, was propped up at home in Reading glued to the television in the early hours of yesterday when he received another jolt to his fragile heart.

The returning officer in the constituency of Reading West in Berkshire was reading out the results: “Adrian Windisch, Green Party: 582; Howard Thomas, Common Sense Party: 852; Bruce Hay, UK Independence Party: 1,508; Daisy Benson, Liberal Democrat, 9,546: Naz Sarkar, Labour: 14,519…..”

Prem’s heart missed a beat as he waited for the next name.

The returning officer paused and continued: “Alok Sharma, Conservative: 20,523….”

There were yells of delight from Tory ranks assembled in the Runnymede Leisure Centre in Reading, almost drowning out the returning officer’s next few words: “…and I declare Alok Sharma to be the member of parliament for Reading West.”

Prem’s mind went back to the 1970s when he had tried to join his local Tory party and been rebuffed by the English traditionalists who then controlled the reins of power.

“Who is this man?” they had reacted disdainfully.

The Tory party of then is not the modern Tory party of today. As David Cameron today continued crucial negotiations with his own team and with Nick Clegg and his advisers to see if there can be a power sharing agreement between the Conservative and Liberal Democratic parties, any deal will have to have the whole-hearted support of new Tory MPs such as Alok Sharma.

But today, Prem spoke to The Telegraph as a father.

“I am very, very, very proud of my son,” said Prem.

Not only had Alok won but “he has made history by recording the biggest swing from Labour to the Tories in the whole country – 12.1 per cent,” Prem pointed out.

On a turnout of 47,530, amounting to 65.9 per cent of the electorate in the constituency – it had been “number 108 on the Tory target list of seats to be won” – Alok had overturned a Labour victory margin of 4,672 in 2005 into a Conservative majority of 6,004.

Today, Alok was so busy as a first-time MP that even his father was finding it difficult to get through to him.

Perhaps Alok, who has grown up in a very different, much more open multi-racial and multi ethnic England, will never fully appreciate the slights and humiliations his father had to suffer so that his son’s generation could get to where he is today.

Prem, now 75 and in poor health, was born in Agra and arrived in England via Columbia University in the US and Nigeria where he worked as a veterinary surgeon and civil servant.

After initial hostility, he made friends, got on in local Conservative circles in Reading, rose in the party and brought in Indian members. They were, at first, given second-tier membership “in case the 150 people I had brought in took over the party”.

But after discovering Prem was genuinely committed to the cause, he eventually became chairman of the Berkshire area Conservatives, joined the party’s One Nation Forum and helped establish the Conservative Parliamentary Friends of India. He was also included on the party’s national executive committee. Today, Prem is a life president of the Reading East Association.

Alok, who has worked as an accountant, has grown up in England but he was born 43 years ago in Agra, his father’s hometown. “We just happened to be there,” Prem explained.

Prem regrets that because of his heart attack he could not be physically present at his son’s count when British politics was being turned upside down. But by and by, he hopes to be strong enough to witness his son speak in the Mother of Parliaments.

This is Alok’s first attempt at standing for the parliament. “He was selected as the candidate for Reading West in 2006 – and he has got in at the first attempt,” Prem said. “He is very sincere, very honest, very hardworking – and in his acceptance speech yesterday, he was very polite to the Opposition.”