On Thursday 23rd January, there are by-elections being conducted in three electoral wards of Barnhill, Wembley Central and Alperton. While there are two vacancies in Barnhill, one in Alperton and one in Wembley Central. There are eight candidates contesting from Barnhill including Mansoor Akram from the Labour Party, Kanta Mistry of the Conservative and Unionist Party.
A total of four candidates are contesting in the by-election in Wembley Central with three of them coming from the Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) background. The three candidates include Sai Karthik Madabhushi from the Conservative and Unionist Party, Jyotsna Patel from Liberal Democrats and Sonia Shah of the Labour Party.
There are four candidates contesting in Alperton with Conservative and Unionist Party fielding Harmit Vyas and Labour Party nominating Chetan Harpale.
Harpale is believed to have been suspended by his party as it investigates alleged anti-Muslim tweets. According to The Times, in recent months, posts on Twitter, apparently by Chetan Harpale, accuse Pakistan of being a "terror state" and suggest that party leader Jeremy Corbyn is "pro-jihadist". His Twitter account is believed to be locked now.
A Labour Party spokesperson said it couldn't comment on the particular case but in a statement added: "The Labour Party takes all complaints of this nature seriously, and they are fully investigated in line with our rules and procedures and any appropriate action is taken."
The tweets by @HarpaleChetan include one written on August 12 which reads: "#CorbynAniIndia-Projihadis Alienating British Indian Labour supporters? #CorbbyAniIndiaProjihadis @jeremycorbyn @UKLabour @JKSC_UK."
In another, @HarpaleChetan writes: "This is so called Peacefully Religion!!!! #PakistanTerrorState #JammuAndKashmir."
The by-election has been called in Alperton after Labour councillor James Allie resigned.
