The David Cameron-led Conservatives secure an unexpected majority win in Britain -- prompting leaders of the opposition Labour, Liberal Democrat and UK Independence Parties to resign.
David Cameron, who became Britain’s youngest prime minister since 1812 when he won elections in 2010, on Friday surprised everyone by securing a majority for the Conservatives against all odds to allow his party to govern alone for the first time in more than two decades.
Cameron, a descendant of King William IV (1830-1837), seemed destined for power long before he took over as the head of the Conservative Party in Britain in December 2005.
The 48-year-old leader led his party to a thumping victory amid pre-poll forecast that the verdict would be the closest in decades and the winner would have to depend on more than one party to come to power.
The son of a stockbroker, Cameron was educated at the elite Eton College and Oxford University. He started his political career by working for the Conservative Party's research department, where he remained for five years. In 1991, he began briefing then PM John Major, and the following year he was promoted as special adviser to Chancellor of the Exchequer Norman Lamont.
Later, UK Home Secretary Michael Howard recruited Cameron to work for him, primarily in a media relations role. In 1994, Cameron left politics to work as the director of corporation affairs at Carlton Communications, a British media company. He resigned from that role in 2001, in order to continue his pursuit of a parliamentary seat, which he won at Witney, Oxfordshire.
Cameron is largely responsible for moving the Tories away from its right-wing image to place the party as an equal choice for the super-rich as well as middle class working families. His efforts seem to have clearly paid off as the Opposition Labour party seem no longer able to command its traditional working class strongholds across Britain.
Friday’s result also reflects on Cameron's ability to have steered an unexpected coalition struck with the Liberal Democrats last time to come out fairly unscathed.
A second term for him is likely to see stronger ties between the United Kingdom and India as Cameron has made considerable symbolic gestures towards the Prime Minister Narendra Modi led government. He lent his support for installing a statue of Mahatma Gandhi at Parliament Square in London earlier this year and backed India's candidacy for a permanent seat in the UN Security Council an election pledge.
Cameron had extensively campaigned among the 1.5 million Diaspora and 615,000 India-born population eligible to vote in the election to return to 10 Downing Street.
Besides politics, Cameron, who is married to Samantha, is also a father four children. Their first child, Ivan, died at the age of 6, from a combination of cerebral palsy and a form of severe epilepsy. He has often made reference to that loss and the care Ivan received from the state-funded National Health Service to persuade skeptics of his noble intentions.
Just how many of his election pledges -- of support for the NHS, an easier tax regime for hard-working families and a fair immigration policy -- he is able to meet remains to be seen. But that India will remain firmly top of his agenda seems fairly certain.
