Out of a field of 22 Indo-Canadian candidates vying for the 87 seats of the BC Legislature Assembly, eight Indo-Canadians were elected as MLAs, all for the BC NDP, which saw an historic win with a total of 55 seats won on election night but there are still hundreds of thousands of mail-in-ballots to be counted so the final number may change but the party has won a majority government. There were also prominent Indo-Canadian on the losing front with the two biggest losers being incumbent BC Liberal MLA Jas Johal, who lost to Amandeep Singh, the first turbaned MLA to be elected, and high profile Surrey-Newton BC Liberal candidate Gulzar Cheema, who just couldn’t beat NDP power house Jinny Sims despite Cheema making noise on Sims’ past scandals.

By R. Paul Dhillon – Editor-Founder DESIBUZZCanada

VANCOUVER – Out of a field of 22 Indo-Canadian candidates vying for the 87 seats of the BC Legislature Assembly, eight Indo-Canadians were elected as MLAs, all for the BC NDP, which saw an historic win with a total of 55 seats won on election night. But there are still hundreds of thousands of mail-in-ballots to be counted so the final number may change but the party has won a majority government. 

There were also prominent Indo-Canadian on the losing front with the two biggest losers being incumbent BC Liberal MLA Jas Johal, who lost to Amandeep Singh, the first turbaned MLA to be elected, and high profile Surrey-Newton BC Liberal candidate Gulzar Cheema, who just couldn’t beat NDP power house Jinny Sims despite Cheema making noise on Sims’ past scandals.

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, the daughter of former deputy speaker of Lok Sabha and senior SAD leader Charanjit Singh Atwal, who hails from Ludhiana in Punjab.

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.

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.

Amandeep Singh, an NDP nominee, defeated loud mouth Jas Johal of the Liberal Party in Richmond, Queensborough.

Newcomer Niki Sharma won the Vancouver Hastings seat for the NDP. 

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