By Sandesh Gulhane MSP (Member of Scottish Parliament)
The past six months have been a whirlwind, and I still feel that it is surreal being the first male Indian heritage MSP to be elected. I have been very open on my social media , where I have been documenting behind the scenes of what life as an MSP is like, but the journey I have been on is unique.
Working as a doctor when the pandemic struck, I felt let down by the Scottish Government when I was sent out of date PPE, feeling that there was poor communication with doctors. I decided I could no longer just sit back waiting for change, so I applied to stand for the Scottish Conservatives at the 2021 Holyrood elections. Baroness Mobarik was instrumental in helping me understand the process of getting selected as a candidate. I passed the candidates board exam, which allowed me to apply to become a candidate for the Glasgow Region. Given that I had only been involved in the Party for a few months, I felt as though I had no chance of securing a high place on the regional list, as I was up against a sitting MSP in Annie Wells, several Glasgow City Councillors and others with much more experience than me. The following weeks were a nerve-racking time as I awaited the results of the regional ranking postal ballot, and it was through the narrowest of margins that I was ranked second, giving me a real chance of being elected.
The campaign was unusual, as personal engagement with actual voters was severely restricted. I was juggling life as a GP, husband and father, with the demands of being a candidate - delivering leaflets, telephone canvassing and attending online hustings. Every few days, opinion polls would be published, some showing that I was going to win a seat and some showing that I wasn’t. As we arrived at polling day, I felt that our team across the Glasgow Region had done everything we could, and I was proud of our efforts.
I went to the count on Saturday having had to self-isolate on Friday because my 13 month old daughter had spiked a temperature and we had to await the result of her COVID test. My more experienced colleagues advised me that it should be a straight fight between the Greens and myself for the seventh list seat. As the count was taking place over two days, we already had the results of the regional count from five of the nine constituencies and we had a small lead over the Greens.
Anyone who has ever been to a count will tell you that there is a lot of waiting around as ballot papers are sorted, counted, and verified, before the result is actually announced.
We waited for several hours before the first three results were declared. These results were for the remaining constituencies but gave a rough indication of how the list voting would go and things seemed rather positive. We then waited for the list votes to be counted.
Pam Gosal MSP with Sandesh Gulhane MSP
The first regional list result extended our lead, as did the second. Of the two remaining regional results we expected to do better in one than in the other, but our expectations were dented when we didn’t achieve as many regional votes as expected from the penultimate constituency. I now only had a slender lead over the Greens as we approached the final declarations. I spoke to my colleagues, asking about the permutations and it seemed that if results were similar to the last election, it should just be enough. As you can imagine, I was rather nervous but tried not to show it.
When the final constituency result was announced, it confirmed that the Greens had done well and with the regional result for that constituency still to declare, we expected the worst. I was gutted. It is the hope that kills you and until this point things were going quite well. I called my wife and my 7-year-old answered. I explained to him what was happening and that I was not likely to win, but he refused to believe it. I can remember him asking me if the final results were in and as they were not, I should be more positive and believe it could still happen. Sage advice, but I decided he probably did not understand what I was saying and asked to speak to my wife, where we decided to have a Nando’s to cheer me up. After hanging up I looked around at my party activists. What had been a mood of optimism for most of the day, had changed. My election agent had his head in his hands, and Annie and her partner came over to give me their commiserations whilst the other candidates were simply crest fallen. We knew there was almost no hope.
However, all was not lost. I will let you into a secret here, the candidates are told the result minutes before it is officially announced. Given what we expected, I could not bring myself to go to this. My election agent and two of the other candidates attended to receive the final declaration, which would give us the overall result. What happened next, changed our mood and my life.
My election agent and two candidates had been away for quite a while when there was a loud scream. I saw one of our candidates, Grahame Cannell, jumping and shouting down in the main hall. His face as he ran round to meet us will stay with me forever. He was saying, “we did it, we did it, we did it.” The despair and gloom suddenly vanished, and we erupted with sheer joy.
I called my wife again and we quickly changed to having a celebratory Nando’s with my son looking at me on Facetime and just saying, “see daddy, I told you to just believe.” I really should not have doubted him! The euphoria went on for what seemed like an age and when the result was confirmed, I was elected by 456 votes. A close result, but one which I am incredibly proud of.
This result has completely changed my life from being a GP to being thrust into politics, going to Holyrood and standing up for my constituents, the NHS and our recovery from the pandemic. In the next article, I will explain my first few weeks as an MSP.