London: “What this city needs is a revolution,” insists little-known New Delhi-born London mayoral election candidate Ankit Love ahead of Thursday’s poll.
The co-founder of the peace-loving One Love party has surprisingly kept a low profile in the run up to this week’s vote, so few people are aware of the Kashmiri ‘Maharajah’ and his organisation — they didn’t even submit a mini-manifesto to let Londoners know what they stand for.
But in an interview with a local newspaper website in the UK capital, the youngest of the 12 candidates bidding to succeed Boris Johnson tried to get his message across. “We founded this party as a new choice for young people because we’re close to them,” the 32-year-old son of Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party patron Bhim Singh told getwestlondon.co.uk.
“We’re the smallest, least funded and youngest of the parties. But if we’ve got this far knowing all of this, we can win it and I know we’ll win it. What this city needs is a revolution — but we understand the financial and practical limits too.”
In terms of policies, Love added that One Love’s priorities included tackling air pollution in London, which he described as ‘an invisible killer’, and solving the city’s affordable housing problems with China-style flat-pack skyscrapers.
“The plan is to build as they do there and build high. I can carry out 19-day builds and they won’t be those 1960s estates either. One million homes in four years, easy — and I’ll give priority to Londoners. I can get it for a good cost,” he assured.
— The writer is a freelance journalist based in the UK
