Two Sikhs among 3 Indian-origin leaders elected to NZ Parliament
AUCKLAND: Three Indian-origin politicians, including two women, have been elected to New Zealand’s Parliament in the general election, in which the centreright governing party has been placed first but failed to capture a parliamentary majority.
Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi, Dr Parmjeet Kaur Parmar and Priyanca Radhakrishnan have successfully made it to the 121-member Parliament in New Zealand.
While Bakshi is all set to begin his fourth successive term, it will be Parmar’s second term (both list MPS of National Party), and 38-year-old Priyanca Radhakrishnan will debut as the Labour Party’s list MP.
The centre-right National Party will have to assemble a coalition if it wants to extend its nineyear hold on power.
The National Party got 46% of the vote, beating back a late surge by the centre-left Labour Party, which received 35.8%, New York Times quoted the Electoral Commission statement. Smaller parties took the rest.
The centre-right National Party, which has been in power for nearly a decade, led by Prime Minister Bill English was contested by the centre-left Labour Party led by Jacinda Ardern, the New Zealand First Party and the Greens.
Bakshi is both, New Zealand’s first Indian and first Sikh member of parliament. He was first elected in the 2008 elections. Delhi-born Bakshi graduated from the University of Delhi in 1985 and moved to New Zealand in 2001 with his family.
4 BOOKED FOR ABDUCTING MINOR
TARN TARAN : Patti police of Tarn Taran district have booked four members of a family for allegedly abducting a 16-year-old girl from Thakarpura village. Girl’s father had said, “We came to know that Gursewak Singh, along with his family members, abducted my daughter with an intention to marry her.”