Rushanara Ali made history on Friday when she became the first Bangladeshi to make it to the British parliament.
Besides, for the first time, two Indian-origin women have been elected to the House of Commons, setting a new record for representation of ethnic minorities in Britain.
The Labour Party candidate Rushanara Ali took Bethnal Green and Bow, the seat previously held by George Galloway. The 35-year-old Oxford graduate won with 21,784 votes, an 11,574 majority over Liberal Democrat Ajmal Masroor, who got 10,210 votes. Respect's Abjol Miah got 8,532 votes.
Conservative Priti Patel was declared elected from the Witham constituency while Labour candidate Valerie Vaz sister of Indian-origin Labour MP Keith Vaz was elected from Walsall South.
Vaz himself retained his seat in Leicester East though his vote share got reduced by 5 per cent from the last elections. It is the first time a brother-sister duo is being elected to the House of Commons.
To tumultuous applause Rushanara Ali, who has been subjected to attacks by Galloway, said: "You, the voters, decided it was time to pay our final respect to Respect. This is a victory for people here who chose hope over fear, unity over division. "To millions of Bangladeshis around the world, it will mean so much to them that somebody of their background has been elected to the mother of all parliaments."
More Asian candidates are expected to be elected as results come in. Keith Vaz told PTI that the election results were expected to break the previous record of 15 Asian MPs. Shahid Malik, Communities minister in the Gordon Brown government, lost his seat in Dewsbury.
A record 89 candidates of Asian origin contested the elections this time. In the 2005 elections, there were 68 candidates and the highest number of ethnic minority MPs 15 were declared elected.
Simon Woolley, OBV's director, said: "Never before in British history have our communities been so strategically well placed and mobilised to push for an agenda of racial justice."
The 15 ethnic minority MPs elected in 2005 were: Diane Abbott ( Labour), Adam Afriyie (Conservative), Dawn Butler (Labour), Parmjit Dhanda (Labour), Mark Hendrick (Labour), Piara Khabra (Labour), Sadiq Khan (Labour), Ashok Kumar (Labour), David Lammy (Labour), Khalid Mahmood (Labour), Shahid Malik (Labour), Mohamed Sarwar (Labour), Marsha Singh (Labour), Shailesh Vara (Conservative), and Keith Vaz (Labour).
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