A Yuba City, California woman of Sikh descent has made history by becoming the first female hailing from her ethnic background to be elected Mayor to City Council in the United States of America.
Preet Didbal has been elected as the mayor of Yuba city in California, becoming the first Sikh woman to hold the position in the United States.
Preet Dibal was appointed by the California city council and will be sworn in on December 5. There are other Sikh mayors across the country — Ravi Bhalla was elected earlier this month as mayor in Hoboken, New Jersey. However, Didbal is the first Sikh woman to be elected as a mayor in the country, the report said.
Didbal is a graduate of Yuba City High School and Sacramento State and earned an MPA with a concentration in health administration from University of San Francisco. She is the first in her family to graduate from college. She works as a process improvement adviser for the State Compensation Insurance Fund.
“Seeing someone that looks like you, that comes from the same faith as you, to be elected to a public office in this country is inspiring and exciting. And it’s definitely moving,” Jaydeep Singh of the Sikh Coalition said.
The Sutter-Yuba region is home to one of the largest Sikh communities in the country. On November 8, Bhalla became the first ever Sikh mayor of New Jersey’s Hoboken city after a stiff competition that turned ugly when he was labelled a terrorist in slanderous flyers.
Thousands of Sikhs have settled in Yuba City due in part to the surrounding region’s fertile soil.