8 Punjabi-origin NRIs elected to British Columbia Assembly in Canada

Sukhmeet Bhasin
Tribune News Service
Bathinda, October 25

Eight candidates of Punjabi-origin have registered significant wins in the British Columbia provincial elections in Canada whose results were declared on Sunday.

Most Punjabi immigrants have won on the New Democratic Party (NDP) ticket from the Surrey region.

Raj Chouhan, elected fifth time in a row, won from Burnaby Edmonds as NDP candidate. Chouhan was president of the Canadian Farm Workers Union. He defeated Tripat Atwal of the Liberal Party. Tripat is the daughter of former deputy speaker of Lok Sabha and senior SAD leader Charanjit Singh Atwal and hails from Ludhiana in Punjab.

Also read: Turbaned Sikh among 8 Indo-Canadian winners in British Columbia assembly polls

Jagrup Singh Brar, a former basketball player, has been re-elected from Surrey Fleetwood as he defeated Garry Thind of the Liberal Party. Brar belongs to Deon village in Bathinda district. Before moving to Canada, he played basketball for India at the national level.

Another Punjabi, Ravi Kahlon, has been re-elected from Delta North as an NDP nominee. Kahlon has represented Canada's hockey team in the Olympics twice.

Rachna Singh, daughter of Punjabi writer Dr Raghbir Singh and an alumna of Panjab University, has been reelected from Surrey Green Timberland on an NDP ticket. She defeated Dilraj Atwal of the Liberal Party.

Harry Bains also got re-elected for the fifth term from the Surrey Newton segment on an NDP ticket as he defeated Paul Boporai of the Liberal Party. Bains has been a member of the BC Assembly since 2005.

Aman Singh, an NDP nominee, defeated Jas Johal of the Liberal Party from Richmond, Queensborough.

Jinny Sins and Niki Sharma of the NDP won from Surrey Panoroma and Vancouver Hastings respectively. Jinny has been reelected and she defeated Gulzar Cheema of Liberal Party.

Brar, Bains and Chauhan will be serving their fifth term as the MLAs in the BC assembly.

There were 22 candidates of the Indian-origin in fray for 87 seats of the BC assembly. In 2017, seven Punjabis were elected to the BC assembly.

As per the 2016 census, there over 4.68 lakh Sikhs in Canada out of which 2.01 lakh live in British Columbia.