Sharma with his wife and daughter after the victory

London, July 20: Virendra Sharma received a congratulatory kiss from wife Nirmal and daughter Monica after counting in the parliamentary election in Ealing Southall was completed in the local town hall in the early hours of this morning.

Sharma thus becomes the latest MP of Indian origin after winning the seat for the Labour Party, pushing Tony Lit, the high-profile Conservative candidate into third place. Tony is the son of Avtar Lit, the founder of Sunrise Radio.

There was another byelection in Sedgefield, Tony Blair’s old seat, which was easily retained by the Labour’s Phil Wilson.

The two by-elections are the first to be held since Gordon Brown succeeded Blair as Prime Minister.

Some commentators today suggested that the two wins may encourage Brown to contemplate an early general election, possibly in the first half of 2008.

Sharma is 60, born in Mandhali, Punjab, on April 5, 1947, but he is a generation younger than Piara Singh Khabra, whose death last month, at the age of 82, caused the bypoll.

Most British MPs enter the House of Commons in their twenties or thirties. Assuming nothing unexpected happens to derail him, Sharma can expect to remain MP for another 15 years.

He has been a local councillor for 25 years representing Norwood Green ward in the London borough of Ealing and its former mayor. He has worked as a day services manager for people with learning disabilities in the London borough of Hillingdon.

He was educated at the London School of Economics, which he attended on a trade union scholarship.

He is a governor at Three Bridges and Wolf Field, which are two local schools.

He comes across as very much the Indian family man, with daughter Monica, son Sanjeev and three grandchildren.

Unlike Indian constituencies, where the number of voters exceed 1 million, their British counterparts generally have between 60,000 and 70,000 on the electoral registerSharma’s constituency is one of the most diverse in Britain since it includes Southall, the heart of Punjabi settlement in the UK.

Sometimes known as “Little Ludhiana” or “Little Punjab”, many Indian immigrants or their children work in the nearby Heathrow airport.