The election of Boris Johnson as UK Prime Minister did not come as a surprise to many after he won comfortably in the Tory leadership race. Johnson won 92,153 votes in the leadership election. His opponent Jeremy Hunt got 46,656 votes. As many as 159,320 members of the Conservative Party voted in the election.
It was a well-known fact that Johnson had his eyes on No. 10 Downing Street for quite a while. He will take office on Wednesday after a meeting with Queen Elizabeth II at the Buckingham Palace.
What many do not know is Johnson's connection with India through his estranged wife, Marina Wheeler. Johnson was married to 54-year-old Wheeler for 26 years before they announced their separation in September 2018. They have four children.
Wheeler is half-Indian and half-English. She is the daughter of Charles Wheeler, BBC's Delhi correspondent during the 1960s, and Dip Singh, Charles' second wife. They had married in New Delhi in 1961.
Through her mother, Marina is connected to India with her family hailing from Sargodha, which is present-day Pakistan. Dip Singh's family had moved to India after partition, Hindustan Times reports.
During Wheeler's and Johnson's 26-year marriage, they had often visited India. Johnson got into hot water during the 2017 election when he mentioned how he brings Scotch Whiskey for his Indian relatives whenever he went to visit the country. Johnson made these comments during a speech at the Bristol Gurudwara.
"I can't think of any other British prime minister who has had such a strong Indian connection," journalist Rahul Singh said. He is late Khushwant Singh's son. Interestingly, Khushwanth Singh was Dip Singh's brother-in-law through her first marriage to Daljit Singh, who was the acclaimed writer's brother.
