Rishi Sunak will become next UK PM if challengers Johnson, Mordaunt fail to get 100 votes today; know the rules here

Indian-origin former chancellor Rishi Sunak could end up becoming the UK prime minister if his opponents Boris and Johnson Penny Mordaunt fail to win the backing of 100 MPs by today. Sunak already has the backing of 142 members of the Parliament. 

While Sunak already has the backing of 142 members of the Parliament, Johnson is supported by 59 MPs and Mordaunt 29. If both Johnson and Mordaunt fail to garner the support of 100 MPs by Monday, Rishi Sunak would automatically become the prime minister, reported NDTV.

As per the rules announced last week, a maximum of three Tory MPs will be able to run, as the party has set a threshold of 100 MPs for candidates to even get on the ballot paper, and there are a total of357 MPs in the party. 

In case of a three-cornered contest, MPs will hold an indicative ballot today to shortlist two candidates for the final contest. There will then be an online vote by around 1,70,000 Tory members and the new PM will be elected by Friday. 

It is being widely pitched as one of the most remarkable political comebacks in British politics as Rishi Sunak formally entered the race to be elected Conservative Party leader and Prime Minister on Sunday.  

This time around he is back with arguably even greater gravitas, given that most of his warnings dismissed by outgoing Prime Minister Liz Truss as a 'doom and gloom' have since come true and plunged the UK economy into a downward spiral as a result of unfunded tax cuts unleashed by a now infamous mini-budget.

While Sunak has maintained a dignified silence over the recent crisis, his supporters have not lost any opportunity to point out how the former finance minister had got the economic forecasts right.

Sunak, 42, a former investment banker and Oxford and Stanford University graduate, was elected member of Parliament from the Tory stronghold of Richmond in Yorkshire in 2015. He quickly rose up the party ranks from junior ministerial posts to Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Last month, his meteoric rise within the Tory ranks hit new heights as he concluded his spirited run to be elected Britain's first Prime Minister of Indian heritage.

In the end, the result was closer than was forecast with Sunak - a clear frontrunner among the party MPs - losing out in the wider membership poll 43 per cent to Truss' 57 per cent.

"We know the UK-India relationship is important. We represent the living bridge between our two countries," declared Sunak, during the course of the nearly eight-week-long election process - dubbed one of the longest job interviews in British politics.

His vision for India-UK bilateral ties went beyond the opportunity for the UK to sell things in India, wanting Britain to also "learn from India".