India’s flamboyant liquor baron, Vijay Mallya, owner of the UK’s Whyte & Mackay whiskey, is poised to take an Indian parliament seat as a representative of the troubled Muslim-majority Kashmir region.

Mr Mallya, the self-styled “King of the Good Times” – whose UB Group brews the popular Kingfisher beer – is expected to be nominated for a seat in India’s Rajya Sabha, or upper house of parliament, with the backing of Omar Abdullah, the recently-elected young chief minister of the state of Jammu and Kashmir.