- Saturday, July 27, 2024
Uday Nagaraju was born in a middle-class family in the current-day southern Indian state of Telangana and shifted to the UK for pursuing higher education.
By: Shubham Ghosh
AN information technology (IT) professional from the present-day southern Indian state of Telangana has been nominated to contest the upcoming parliamentary election in the UK on the ticket of the Labour Party from North Bedfordshire, a new constituency.
The 55-year-old Uday Nagaraju, who is also the founder-director of London-based AI Policy Labs and co-founder and executive president of Global Policy Insights, announced his candidature on May 14 and has been wished by many people ever since, including Indian politician KT Rama Rao, a former minister of Telangana.
“Many congratulations Uday on your candidature. My best wishes to you,” the Bharat Rashtra Samithi leader said on X.
Parliamentary elections in the UK are expected to take place in January next year. Nagaraju will be pitted against Richard Fuller of the Tory Party, who is currently the MP of North East Bedfordshire constituency.
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Speaking about his candidature, Nagaraju wrote on X, “It’s an honour and privilege to be selected as Labour’s Parliamentary candidate. Only a Labour government can deliver the change that North Bedfordshire needs. I will give voice to the hard-working people of this community and fight to bring opportunities to the local area.”
https://x.com/uday_nagaraju/status/1790419802558718073
Sarah Owen, Labour MP from Luton North, also congratulated him on X, saying, “Congratulations Uday! Looking forward to running more of Bedfordshire red!”
Primesh Patel, an Indian-origin leader who will contest the election for the Labour Party from Harrow East, said, “Congratulations Uday! Great to see yet more @LabourIndians being selected.”
https://x.com/PrimeshPatel/status/1791444348195770713
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Nagaraju was born in a middle-class family and after doing his schooling in Warangal and Hyderabad in erstwhile Andhra Pradesh state and completing graduation in computer technology from Nagpur University in India, he pursued Master’s degree in computer science at Oxford Brookes University and another Master’s degree in public administration at University College of London, a degree which he got only in 2022. He calls his second Master’s degree as part of ‘life long learning’, the Times of India reported.
Nagaraju’ family belongs to Shanigaram in Koheda mandal in the former Karimnagar district and now in Siddipet district of Telangana, which itself was carved out of Andhra Pradesh in 2014. His father Nagaraju Hanumanth Rao is no more while his mother Nirmala lives with his sister in Hyderabad.
However, the Indian-born candidate knows that it will not be an easy fight in North Bedfordshire, which has been a Conservative bastion for decades. However, its demographic character has witnessed changes with the arrival of a large number of immigrants of South Asian origin, the Times report added.
It cited the government website to report that in Lutton, the biggest city in the region, there has been a 51 per cent rise in people of Bangladeshi origin and 40 per cent of those of Pakistani origin in a decade between 2011 and 2021. The Indian community has remained largely stable at a little over five per cent.
As someone who is deeply interested in the impact of artificial intelligence on life, Nagaraju aims to make use of AI and its applications in matters of governance.
