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Sarkozy party holds the edge in Parliament poll

Vaiju Naravane

Indian origin candidate in the race for legislature seat

Paris: The French started voting early on Sunday morning to elect a new Parliament. Polls indicate President Nicolas Sarkozy's Right wing Union for Democratic Movement (UMP) could win between 420 and 450 seats in the 577-member Parliament, unless there is a last-minute upsurge in the socialist camp.

This is the first round of voting and the two top candidates in each constituency will face each other in a second round run-ff on June 17, unless a candidate polls over 50 per cent of the vote in the first round itself, in which case he or she would be elected outright.

The UMP has been riding high on the President's popularity since he was elected last month, vowing to put an end to high unemployment, poor economic growth and social discontent in high-immigration suburbs.

The UMP has ruled for the last five years in an unpopular government, but opinion polls predict that thanks to Mr. Sarkozy's electoral appeal, it will increase its majority and emasculate the already weakened Socialist Party.

The first candidate of Indian origin, lawyer Jean Bernard Mirabeau (28), is running on a ticket of the new party, the Movement for Democracy (Modem) launched by Francois Bayrou, the third man of the presidential election and is pitted against Julien Dray, Socialist Party spokesman and sitting MP from the Paris suburb of Grigny. Although it is unlikely that Mr. Mirabeau will make it to the second round, he is determined to make his mark in politics.

Sanjay, as he is known to friends and family, had to fight great odds to make his mark in France's very rigid society. Sanjay's father was a medical student. In his second year of studies he discovered he had leprosy. It was already at an advanced stage and he had to quit. "He named me Jean Bernard after the great French doctor and researcher. He wanted me to find a cure for him. My father died when I was 12. My mother brought us up and I owe everything to her hard work, her love and her perseverance."

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