LONDON: Three different groups of British Indians which mobilised hundreds of volunteers to campaign against Labour in the run-up to the UK general election claim they influenced the outcome in about 70 seats.

Angry with Labour over its anti-India stance under its leader

, more than 600 PIOs formed a nationwide campaign called BHIVM (British Hindu and Indian Votes Matter) to bring British Indian and non-Indian British Hindu (such as Nepalese and Mauritius) communities together on an anti-Labour pitch.

Vinod Tikoo, one of the volunteers, said, "We focused predominantly outside

London

in places like the Midlands, the North, South West and Wales. We identified 80 plus seats nationwide including 30 plus marginals we could influence the Indian diaspora vote and worked relentlessly over the last three months."

According to BHIVM’s initial data crunching, Tiikoo claims they influenced around 22 seats where Labour was defeated, around 29 seats where the Conservatives increased their majority and another 20 plus seats where the Labour majority was significantly reduced.

Labour won just 203 seats at the election – its worst performance since 1935 – and 32.1 per cent of the vote share.

Tikoo said the Labour resolution on

, the protests outside the India high commission in London, including one on Diwali, the fact that banned terror outfit JKLF came out in public support of Labour, were among the factors that motivated them.

"We ran hustings in four constituencies – in

, Reading West, Woking and one in the Midlands," he said. "We sent letters to candidates and we used our wider networks and community groups, both traditional ones and on social media, to put the message across. We actively worked with community groups to campaign door-to door. We also did a lot with Facebook and Twitter. We had more than 250 volunteers working on a social media campaign informing the community on Labour’s policies under Corbyn, including its stance on Kashmir. There was a lot of interaction on social media from non-Indians too, especially the Jewish community."

He emphasised they did not campaign on a pro-Tory stance, rather an anti-Labour one. "This was more of anti-Jeremy Corbyn, than anything else," he said.

He does not claim their campaign was the sole force swinging those seats the Tories won. "In the Midlands and the North there were many pro-Brexit voters upset with Labour who affected the Labour seats. But there were some seats we could impact because of activism in the Indian community such as

South," he said. In Swindon South the group campaigned for the Conservative MP Robert Buckland and helped him increase his majority. "Swindon has the biggest Goan community in Britain," he said.

Other seats they claim to have influenced include Carshalton and Wallington, which was a Conservative gain from the Lib Dems with a majority of 629.

"We also increased Conservative MP Bob Blackman’s majority in Harrow East. In Sutton and Cheam we did a lot of work for Conservative MP

There is a large Indian community there because and Paul, like Bob Blackman, is very positive to the Indian community," he said.

The group claims to have also helped Conservative Gareth Bacon in Orpington get an increased majority of 22,378 over Labour and to have helped Liberal Democrat Ed Davey beat Conservative Aphra Brandreth in Kingston and Surbiton with an increased 10,489 majority.

The group also campaigned in marginal seats such as Keighley (which saw a Tory gain), Chipping Barnet (which saw an increased Conservative majority), Milton Keynes North (increased Conservative majority), Milton Keynes South (increased Conservative majority); and Boris Johnson’s seat of Uxbridge, where Labour’s Ali Milani was trying to unseat him (but instead saw an increased majority.)

The Conservative Friends of India (CFI), for its part, targeted 40 Tory-Labour marginal seats. It carried out a sophisticated micro-campaign targeting PIOs in 16 of them, CFI patron and treasurer Amrish Patel said. It was successful in 15. These were seats where the number of PIOs exceeded the majority that needed to get overturned. They were also top target seats for the Tories.

The seats which he says they influenced include Dudley North. Here Labour had a majority of 22 above the Tories in the 2017 election and 71 per cent voted Leave. 2,522 people were recorded of Indian-origin in the 2011 census. The Conservatives gained the seat with a majority of 11,533.

Another is Newcastle-under Lyme. Labour had a majority of 30 in the 2017 election and 62 per cent voted Leave. 848 people of Indian origin were living there at the time of the 2011 census. The Conservatives gained the seat from Labour with a majority of 7,446 votes.

Peteerborough is another example, he said. Labour had a majority of 607 from a by-election in June and 61 per cent voted Leave. 3,503 PIOs lived there at the time of the last census. In this election the Conservatives gained the seat with a majority of 2,580.

Meanwhile Kuldeep Shekhawat told TOI that his team of 800 British Indian volunteers, who were also campaigning in Tory-Labour marginals, managed to help gain two seats, Wolverhampton South West and Warrington South, for the Conservatives from Labour. Shekhawat also claimed that his team, who, he said hail from from everywhere from Kashmir to South India, influenced the result in around 68 seats.

In Wolverhampton South West, where approx 12,239 PIOs live (according to the last census), the Conservatives gained the seat with a majority of 1,661 votes. Warrington South, where an estimated 1,238 PIOs live, was also a gain from Labour. Conservative Andy Carter won with a majority of 2,010 unseating British Pakistani MP Faisal Rashid.

"These were volunteers volunteering in their personal capacity as British Indians, campaigning for India against Labour, not all of them were part of Overseas Friends of BJP (OFBJP) UK," explained Shekhawat, who is OFBJP UK president.

His group, however, failed to oust any of the six PIO Labour MPs they targeted - but did achieve reduced majorities for some of them.

"We helped slash the majority in dozens of Labour seats by getting the Indian diaspora to vote Conservative for the first time," Shekhawat said, citing Walsall South, Wigan, Leicester East, Harrow West and Bradford South as examples.

"We also significantly increased the Conservative majorities in Harrow East and Reading West which until now were marginals."

Labour’s Barry Gardiner and Virendra Sharma, who Shekhawat’s group was supporting, both held their seats – albeit with lower majorities. That might have been because Conservative Friends of India was campaigning for Gardiner’s rival PIO Anjana Patel. Gardiner’s majority was slashed from 17,061 to 8,079.