Can Rishi Sunak become the first UK PM of Indian origin?

It was Rishi Sunak, a Conservative Party parliamentarian from Richmond, Yorkshire, whose resignation as Chancellor of the Exchequer, or finance ministry, began the downfall of Boris Johnson as more resignations followed one after another.

Now, with the conclusion of the first round of the vote for Johnson’s successor, Sunak, 42, has come out on top and appears to be well on course to become one of the final two candidates vying for the prime ministerial seat at 10 Downing Street.

Sunak secured the support of 88 out of the 358 Conservative Members of Parliament (MPs), with junior trade minister Penny Mordaunt trailing behind with 67 votes and foreign minister Liz Truss coming third with 50.

The other leaders who made it to the second round, scheduled to take place later today, include former equalities minister Kemi Badenoch, Attorney General Suella Braverman, and chair of parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee Tom Tugendhat.

Nadhim Zahawi, who had taken over as finance minister from Sunak last week, and ex-health secretary Jeremy Hunt were eliminated from the contest as they failed to secure the minimum of 30 votes required to proceed further.

Sunak, if chosen as the party leader, would become the first UK PM of Indian origin.

Born in Southampton, his father was an NHS family general practitioner and his mother ran her own local chemist shop. Sunak studied politics, philosophy and economics at the University of Oxford and before entering politics, he worked for Goldman Sachs and a hedge fund.

Sunak’s grandparents hailed from the Indian province of Punjab and his parents moved to the UK in the 1960s in search of a better life. Married to Akshata Murthy, Sunak is the son-in-law of Indian billionaire N. R. Narayana Murthy, founder of Indian outsourcing giant Infosys.

While the 42-year-old Richmond MP stood well ahead of others, a snap poll of nearly 900 Conservative Party members by YouGov showed on Wednesday that Mordaunt would win a run-off in case she makes it to the final two. It put Mordaunt in the lead with 27 percent, Badenoch in second spot with 15 percent, followed by Sunak and Liz Truss on 13 percent.

If it came down to a head-to-head contest between Sunak and Mordaunt, the YouGov poll showed the latter enjoyed more popularity among the grassroots members of the party.

The stage will be clear by the end of the next week when around 160,000 Conservative members across the country will vote for the candidate they want as their leader, with the result to be announced on September 5.