The Victorian state elections will be held on 26 November 2022 with a record 740 candidates contesting the 88 Legislative Assembly seats and 454 candidates in the Legislative Council seats.
The postal voting to elect the 60th Parliament of Victoria began on 2 November 2022. Voters are also able to vote You can vote at early voting centres between Monday 14 November and Friday 25 November.
Victorian Labor led by Premier Daniel Andrews is seeking a third successive term. While the Victorian Liberal Party under Mat Guy hopes to break Labor’s lucky streak and form the government.
To lure Indian-origin voters, Premier Daniel Andrews has promised $10 million for Indian community projects, including a new community centre in the west. While the Liberal leader Mathew Guy has promised to give an annual $150,000 grant for the Dusshera celebration festival at Sri Durga Temple in Melbourne’s west.
Apart from promising funds for the Indian community, major Australian political parties have also fielded Indian-origin candidates.
There are 18 Indian-origin candidates contesting this year’s Legislative Assembly state election on Liberal and Greens, and also as independents.
| Liberal Party: Preet Singh – Tarneit Raja Reddy – Laverton Sahil Tomar – Bundoora Bikram Singh – Kalkallo Gurdawar Singh – Thomastown George Palackalody – Melbourne | Labor Party: Mannie Kaur Verma – Rowville |
| Greens: Kiran Vempati – Cranbourne Shamsher Khan – Point Cook Deepak Joshi – Warrandyte | Independent: Sanjeev Sablhok – Bulleen Smiley Sandhu – Kalkallo Gurneet Soni – Laverton Jasleen Kaur – Melton Rajvir Singh Sagoo – Pakenham Rakhi P. Chaudhary – Point Cook Shwetali Sawant – Point Cook Rushi Vijaykumar Patel – Sunbury Jaydeep Patel – Tarneit Prashant Tandon – Werribee |
There are 34 Indian-origin candidates contesting this year’s Legislative Council election on Liberal, Labor, Greens, New Democrats, and also as independents.
| New Democrats Srilakshmi Ajjampura – Eastern Victoria Komalben Darji – Eastern Victoria Namrata Shah – Eastern Victoria Darshan Lal – North Eastern Metropolitan Pushpdeep Singh – North Eastern Metropolitan Rajat Garg – North Eastern Metropolitan Vikram Bhinder – Northern Metropolitan Amita Ros – Northern Metropolitan Pushpinder Singh – Northern Metropolitan Brijesh Chopra – Northern Victoria Kuldeep Der – Northern Victoria Erin Sharma – Northern Victoria Ravinder Rana – Northern Victoria Bhaveshkumar Lakhatariya – South Eastern Metropolitan Bhavika Patel – South Eastern Metropolitan Satinder Singh – South Eastern Metropolitan Nilam Panchal – South Eastern Metropolitan Krishna Brahmbhatt – Southern Metropolitan Jigarkumar Chaudhary – Southern Metropolitan Ravinder Marwaha – Southern Metropolitan Kaushaliya Vaghela – Western Metropolitan Arix Bishnoi – Western Metropolitan Yogesh Malhotra – Western Metropolitan Anitha Palkuri – Western Metropolitan Mohammed Shaik – Western Metropolitan Hardik Dave – Western Victoria Jaymik Patel – Western Victoria Vijaykumar Kachhia – Western Victoria | Labor Nildhara Gadani – North Eastern Metropolitan |
| Liberal Manjunatha Hanumantharayappa – South Eastern Metropolitan Manish Patel – Western Metropolitan | Justice Party Mohit Dwivedi – South Eastern Metropolitan |
| United Australia Party Jatinder Singh – South Eastern Metropolitan Deepak Bansal – Western Metropolitan | |
Kaushaliya Vaghela, the first Indian-born Member of Parliament (Western Metropolitan) in the Victorian Parliament, has recently parted ways from Labor to form New Democrats.
Vaghela’s party has fielded the maximum number of Indian-origin candidates in the Legislative Council seats.
A similar major push to attract Indian-origin voters during the 2022 Federal Elections. According to the advocacy group Centre of Multicultural Political Engagement, Literacy and Leadership, the Liberal party ran the highest number of candidates of colour in the May 2022 federal election.
However, out of the 26 Indian-origin candidates fielded by the major political parties, only one – Zaneta Mascarenhas (Labor, Western Australia) – was able to win in the Federal elections.
It would be interesting to see how many Indian-origin candidates will be able to win either the Legislative Assembly or Legislative Council seat in the Victorian elections!
WATCH VIDEO: Who will Indian-Australians vote for in Victoria State Election 2022?
