The state of NSW is gearing up to elect its local government officials, with polls on 14 September.
The electoral fiasco now behind us of a major political party failing to put in nominations by the stipulated time, campaigning by the other candidates has begun in earnest for the state’s 128 Local Councils.
Of the 3889 candidates in the fray, a record 96 candidates this time are of Indian origin. They seek to represent their local communities all across the state, from Albury to Dubbo, Griffth to Gwydir, Queanbeyan to Mid-Western Regional (Mudgee), Willoughby to Wingeribbee (Bowral).
Blacktown as expected tops the list with the highest number of desi candidates, with Cumberland, Campbelltown, Parramatta and Penrith next in line.
What is surprising however is the large number of candidates who have chosen to go Independent – a whopping 47 of the 96 candidates are not affiliated to any party.
Labor is next with 22 candidates, while Liberals, Greens and Others make up the rest.
It is interesting that the Indian origin candidates are running as Independents. Most of them are first generation migrants who are keen to contribute to their adopted country but have not been able to work through the systems of the major parties here. Commendable that rather than giving up on their endeavours entirely, they have had the courage to stand as Independents.
If the candidates seem to be looking to make a paradigm shift by not aligning with the traditional platforms, it begs the question if the voters themselves will shun the status quo and take up new-look options.
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In the Sydney region, many councillors are recontesting their seats, including Raj Datta, Sameer Pandey, Reena Jethi, Moninder Singh, Sreeni Pillamarri, Karri Sandy Reddy and Barbara Ward – all well-known in the community, out and about at various events. Usha Dommaraju will however be staying out, while Pallavi Sinha, who has contested state elections before, will be attempting to make it to North Sydney Council.
Known for their Liberal leanings, Pallavi Sinha and Barbara Ward are both contesting on Independent tickets this time round.
A welcome surprise is the stepping up of new candidates for the NSW Local Government elections this time from amongst our midst, eager to make a difference: Indu Balachandran (GAICD, CA) in Ku-ring-gai; health advocate Dr Saba Nabi in Wagga Wagga; Rahul Nand (immigration lawyer) in Georges River; Manjula Viswanath (dancer and community volunteer) in the Hills Shire; Seema Raghav (technology leader in higher education) in the Hills Shire, and restauranter Mandeep Sunny Singh at Northern Beaches.
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(Funnily enough, Sunny is a Liberal Party member who lodged his own nomination papers, not knowing that the Party was meant to be doing it, thus becoming the lone candidate from his party in his area.)
Equally laudable are the younger members of the community throwing their hat in the ring, such as Samyuta Pillamarri in Hornsby (yes, that’s Sreeni’s daughter if you recognise that surname), and lawyer Vivek Goyal in Canada Bay.
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With both first-time and youthful participants from our community, there’s a breath of fresh air in the NSW Local Government elections this year. The lament has been made for far too long that we need to step up and join the political process to make our own contributions. Has there been enough dipping of toes in the water, and are we seeing a charging into the ocean? Time will tell.
We spoke with some Indian-origin candidates here.
