A record number of Indian-origin candidates will contest local council elections next month in Victoria, home to Australia's largest Indian population.
According to official figures,Victorian Electoral Commission received totalnominations from2,135 candidates for 637 councillor postsacross 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.
Whyndam city council, the western region of the state, recorded the highest number ofover14Indian-origin candidates as compared to other councils.
Whyndam, which hadelected itsfirst two Indian origincouncillors in 2012, Gautam Gupta and Intaj Khan, received the highest nominations of total 95 candidates including ofIndian background.
Gupta, councillor andthe first Indian-originacting mayor of Whyndam, stressed that for any community to have representation in Australia politicswas imperative in a bidto show the community integration intowider community.
Thoughhis agendas as a politicianwould revolve around several localissues 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 businessawards, Diwali and Holi Fest inWhyndamwhich were wellrecognised by both community and government and I will continue to work towards better infrastructure and multicultural issuesif re elected," Gupta,who isagain running from Chaffey ward this year, said.
For Pathankot-bornMonica Raizada, it was her first time as a candidate and her work which she had been doing indomestic violence area prompted her to contest thelocalelections.
FromWhyndam, one of the fastest emerging council in the state thatholds10 per cent of its total population fromIndia, other nominees who will fight the elections 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.
Acandidate of Casey council in south eastern region,Sid Banerjee said Indian community was the fastestgrowing community across the stateand thus a higher representation.
"Migration from India has grown over the years and also thatIndianslove politics," Banerjee, whomigrated fromKolkata 11 years ago and works as a bank manager here, said.
Gary Verma, anIT professional who is running fromMelton council said his aim was to bring more schools and solve local issues like hightax rate on real estate in the council.
Other Indian-origincandidates from Melton councilare Deepika Singla, Dilpreet Singh and Meen Solanki.
Indian-born population has trippled since 2004 in AustraliawithVictoria recording thelargest number ofover 111,000 Indiansapart from New South Wales.
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