November 9, 2008
Source: Times of India
Wire Service: IANS
Former New Delhi businessman Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi will be the first Sikh member of the New Zealand parliament which has a record number of six Asian members following Saturday's election.
The parliament will also see its first Korean member Melissa Lee and its first Asian member Pansy Wong, who was elected in 1996, together with Bakshi, in the newly-elected National Party government ranks.
Wong, who was born in Shanghai and educated in Hong Kong before coming to New Zealand in 1974, won the new Auckland constituency of Botany with a majority of more than 10,000 after previously being in parliament on the National Party list.