The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday dubbed the United Kingdom elections as 'significant' and said that the British-Indian community's participation would 'make or mar' the election.
BJP spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi said that there has been a shift in the way the Indian community in Britain is perceived and their concerns would play an important role in the elections.
"The election is very significant, especially for the Indian community, because the Indian community's participation is going to make or mar the election and the concerns of India also somewhere are going to be considered," Lekhi said.
"There seems to be a certain shift and people who took them for granted previously may have to see which side the vote swing is going to happen. So the concerns of India and the concerns of the Indian community will also be a very important factor in this entire election array," she added.
Meanwhile, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor said that the election results would be of little significance in the already well established India-Britain relations.
"I do not think it is particularly significant in that whichever result comes. Our relationship with Britain is built on certain fundamentals, which are not going to change. The fact is that there has been a long historic relationship. As a result there are affinities: educational, cultural, language, cricket," Tharoor said.
More From This Section
"For India or India-British relations, I do not expect any significant change, whatever the outcome of the election," he added.
Earlier in the day, the UK went to polls, with a total of 650 Westminster MPs to be elected. Around 50 million people have registered to vote.
There are also more than 9,000 council seats being contested across 279 English local authorities.
Polling stations will close in five hours.