Mysuru: Udupi-Chikkamagaluru Member of Parliament Shobha Karandlaje has been appointed as an official parliamentary observer for the UK Parliamentary elections scheduled to be held on June 8 where each of the 650 parliamentary constituencies will elect one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons, the Lower House of Parliament.

Under UK Election Assignment Mission, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan selected the name of Shobha Karandlaje and Baijayant ‘Jay’ Panda, an MP from Odisha as official election observers in the UK. Shobha and Panda will work as observers from June 3 to 10.

Speaking to Star of Mysore this morning, she said that she has been chosen as an independent observer and this is her first such assignment on a foreign soil. “Though the nature of my assignment is not clear, we will be trained before being put on duty. Also, I don’t know much about the UK Parliamentary election process which I have studied in textbooks,” she said.

She said that she would be flying to UK tomorrow. “I was quite surprised when I received the letter asking me if I were up for the assignment. I even reached out to the Embassy asking them what this entailed.

All I have gathered is that I will be a neutral observer,” she said. “I will be tasked to collect information about the influence that is wielded by political parties on voters and whether they are adopting any unfair means to win the elections,” she added.

India is sending its MPs following a request by the UK Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA).

Earlier too India had sent its members to act as observers in UK elections. Observers will be expected to undergo a two-day training programme before being deployed on election duty.

The CPA has sought for only those members who are physically fit and willing to work for long hours on the election day.