After the successful visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to US, the Cameron government has invited Modi to visit London on 30th January 2015. The British government is hoping that if Modi comes to London on 30th January, he would be asked to unveil the statue of Sardar Patel at the Parliament Square. The Cameron government is hoping that by unveiling Sardar's statue, the influential Indian community, especially the Gujarati community, would vote for the Conservative party in the May 2015 general election. There were around 700,000 Gujaratis in and around London and statue politics would spur the Gujaratis to vote for Tories.
After the 2002 communal riots in Gujarat, the Labour government had snapped all relations with Modi. After the Cameron government came to power, they tried to mend relations with Modi. In 2013 when Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat, the British High Commissioner James Bevan came to Gandhinagar meet Modi and mend relations. By asking Modi to unveil the statue, the Cameron government thinks that the relations between the two countries would be stronger. But Modi visit may not be possible on January 30 in view of the Republic Day function in Delhi on 26th January.
