:dateline:Gravesham Labour Party has chosen who will fight for a seat in Parliament at the general election in 2015.
Borough councillor Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi, 34, came through victorious from a two month selection process which finished with hustings at the Northfleet Veterans Club on Sunday (July 21).
The Northfleet North ward councillor won an overwhelming majority in the final vote among local party members against a former teacher from Wolverhampton Savita Sehdev after 12 nominees were whittled down to two.
Gravesham Labour Party chairman Cllr Colin Caller was a member of the selection committee involved in the process and says he is delighted the party has gone for a local candidate.
The Westcourt ward councillor told News Shopper: “It�s a change as we haven�t had a local candidate for the Labour Party for a few years now so I�m very pleased to get one.
“Cllr Dhesi is well liked by the committee and he�s lived locally now since before he could walk. He was a very popular mayor when he was mayor of the borough.
“His credentials speak for themselves and he�s a highly intelligent young man with a good political future ahead of him. Obviously we are looking forward to the next election and getting a Labour MP in.”
Cllr Dhesi was Mayor of Gravesham from 2011 to 2012, was first elected a councillor in 2007 and is currently cabinet member for business and the community.
The Hall Road, Northfleet, resident said: “It is obviously a great honour to be elected by your fellow members.
“They have put their trust in me and I will be working very hard over the next couple of years to repay that trust.
“I have spent most of my life in Gravesham and it�s a great opportunity to serve the community in which I live and in which I have a great interest.
“We have now got a strong local candidate and that is what the party here always wanted.”
Gravesham is currently held by Conservative Adam Holloway who won it in 2005 and retained it in 2010.
