Record number of desis in Victoria poll fray

According to official figures, Victorian Electoral Commission received total nominations from 2,135 candidates for 637 councillor posts across 78 councils in the state. In the upcoming elections, over 50 Indian-origin candidates will contest the election, the largest representation by the community for the first time. 

Gautam Gupta, councillor and the first Indian-origin acting mayor of Whyndam, stressed that for any community to have representation in Australia politics was imperative in a bid to show the community integration into wider community. Though his agendas as a politician would revolve around several local issues like hospitals and infrastructure, for Indian community he said it would be working on an Indian precinct in his council. 

“We started several campaigns including ‘Racism:it stops with me’, multicultural business awards, Diwali and Holi Fest in Whyndam which were well recognised by both community and government and I will continue to work towards better infrastructure and multicultural issues if re-elected,” Gupta, who is again running from Chaffey ward this year, said. Other nominees from Whyndam include Satnam Singh, Kamal Ahmud, J S Aashat, Nirmal Singh, Dinesh Gourisetty, Himanshu Manocha, Sahil Gupta, Jagrutiben Dave, R J Singh, Rishi Prabhakar and a high profile entrepreneur and millionaire Intaj Khan. “Migration from India has grown over the years and also that Indians love politics,” Sid Banerjee, who migrated from Kolkata 11 years ago and works as a bank manager here, said.