Modi flyers to woo Londoners

The Conservative party candidate for the high-profile London mayoral polls is using leaflets with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s image to woo Indian-origin voters against his veteran Labour party rival who is the son of Pakistani immigrants.

Zac Goldsmith, an Oxford-educated millionaire, is the Conservative party candidate for the race for the polls on May 5 to replace Boris Johnson when his term comes to end.

He is up against Labour’s Sadiq Khan, a politician who proudly proclaims his working class roots as the son of a Pakistani bus driver. In an effort to grab an edge over Mr Khan, Mr Goldsmith’s team has been using a leaflet with an image of him shaking hands with the Indian Prime Minister alongside British counterpart David Cameron during Mr Modi’s visit to the UK in November 2015.

The message reads: “Stan-ding up for the British Indian community.” However, the 41-year-old’s tactic seems to have backfired as he was accused of a Hindu bias by only mentioning festivals of “Diwali, Navratri and Janamashtami” in reference to his “strong engagement with the Indian community.”

The Goldsmith team also issued tailored letters for London’s Tamil-origin population which tend to have expensive jewellery in their homes, warning that Mr Khan is planning a “wealth tax on family jewellery.”

The letter reads: “The first job of the ,ayor of London is to protect Londoners. I recognise that far too often, Tamil households are targeted for burglary due to families owning gold and valuable family heirlooms.