Meet Ankit Love, the ‘Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir’ who is running for London Mayor

The London Mayoral electoral race is seeing candidates from varied walks of life- there’s a billionaire’s son, a bus driver’s son, and the ‘Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir.’

At 32 years, Ankit Love, a British-Dogra musician is the youngest candidate running for London Mayor.

Ankit grew up in Surrey and is the son of Jammu and Kashmir Nation Panthers Party member Bhim Singh. In his LinkedIn profile, Ankit describes himself as a music artiste, filmmaker and founder of Ankit Love Productions. His profile also describes him as “His Highness The Emperor (Maharaja), Sovereign State of Jammu and Kashmir.”

Back in 2012, his documentary Runners and short film Whale! had premiered at the Cannes Film Festival.

Along with his former Cambridge University graduate Finn Grant, Ankit reportedly set up his ‘One Love Party’ a year ago in ‘a dorm room’ to spread the message of peace for all mankind.

His party is not only the youngest and least-funded, but also according to him is the ‘best-looking party.’ He is also very confident of winning the election. However, not much is known about his party or how they got in the electoral race, in the first place.

His party has promised to make air pollution in London a priority, promote green cars and hydrogen fuel stations, ensure free higher education and even legalisation of cannabis under a license system.

‘Born under the armed guard’ in 1983, Ankit claimed that his mother named him Love with the hope that we would bring peace to the region. He reprtedly moved to the UK in 1989 for security reasons because of his family’s political engagements.

Ankit’s father Bhim Singh is however not pleased. “I wish Ankit had not joined politics. Politics ruined our family,” he told Indian Express.

When asked why his son is calling himself the Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir, Bhim Singh adds that it appears to be ‘an attempt to expose the Indian leadership’s inaction in resolving the problems of the state.’

Image credit: getwestlondon.co.uk