NRI Ravi Bhalla Sikh Mayor announces
Congressional bid from New Jersey

Los Angeles, Dec 14, 2023
NRIpress.club/Ramesh/ A.Gary Singh

Ravi Bhalla, the first Sikh Mayor of Hoboken City in New Jersey, has announced his candidacy from the US state’s 8th Congressional district.

Bhalla will challenge Representative Rob Menendez Jr, son of Senator Bob Menendez who is facing facing federal corruption charges, in the Democratic primary next year.

If elected, he will be the first turbaned Sikh elected to US Congress.

Ravi Bhalla said :

• I’m running for Congress in New Jersey’s 8th congressional district, because I believe that America is better than the demagogues who seek to divide us, or the politicians who strive only to serve themselves

Bhalla first set his roots in Hoboken at the age of 26, “a bachelor fresh out of law school starting his first job at a small law firm in Newark, New Jersey”, according to his website profile.

He specialised as a civil rights lawyer, earning national recognition from The New York Times for his legal advocacy after suffering a violation of his own constitutional and civil rights during a jail visit to a client.

The two-term Hoboken mayor served eight years on Hoboken’s City Council before ascending to its highest post in 2018. Before entering politics, he was a civil rights attorney.

“This moment requires change that is momentous. I believe that health care is a human right. Housing is a human right. Reproductive rights are human rights,” Bhalla said in his announcement video. “The climate crisis is not a predetermined catastrophe, but a challenge we can and must meet.”

If elected, Bhalla would be the first turbaned Sikh elected to Congress and only the second Sikh sent to the nation’s capital. Bhalla, who was New Jersey’s first Sikh mayor, was subject to attack mailers calling him a terrorist during his 2017 mayoral campaign.