Friday, May 6 2005 20:50 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

London: The newly-elected British Parliament will have six Indian-origin MPs, the same as in the dissolved House, with veteran Keith Vaz winning with a record margin of 15,800.

In the new House of Commons, there will be five NRI MPs from the ruling Labour party while one is from the Opposition Conservative.

In the last elections, five NRI MPs were elected on Labour ticket while a Liberal Democrat was chosen in a by-election.

The Labour MPs elected are: Keith Vaz (Leicester East), former Minister for Commonwealth and Foreign Office, Dr Ashok Kumar (Northhampton), Marsha Singh (Bradford), Piara Singh Khabra (Southall-Ealing) and Paramjit Singh Danda (Gloucester).

The sole NRI Conservative candidate to win the election is Sailesh Vara (Cambridgeshire North-West).

Prominent among the NRI losers were Paramjit Singh Gill, Liberal Democrat in Leicester South, and Sandeep Varma (Labour) (Wolverhampton).

Vaz won the elections with a record margin of 15,800 - about 2,400 votes more than in the 2001 elections.

He is one of the few Labour candidates who have increased their winning margin.

"I am absolutely delighted about the fantastic victory," Vaz said.

Vaz has represented Leicester East since 1987.

Asians constitute 49 per cent of 67,000 electorate in the constituency.

A record number 113 candidates from ethnic minority backgrounds had contested the poll - an increase of 47 from the 2001 election.

Labour had fielded 32, conservative 41, and Liberal Democrat 40.