Davendra Singh (born 1950) was a Fiji Indian small businessman and politician who came into prominence when he challenged and defeated the official

National Federation Party The National Federation Party ( Fiji Hindi: नेशनल फेडरेशन पार्टी; Fijian: ''Mataisoqosoqo ni National Federation'') is a Fijian political party founded by A. D. Patel in November 1968, as a merger of the Fe ...

(NFP) candidate in a by-election in March 1985. The

Lautoka Lautoka (, ) is the second largest List of cities and towns in Fiji#List, metropolitan area in Fiji. It is on the west coast of the island of Viti Levu, in the Ba Province of the Western Division, Fiji, Western Division. Lying in the heart of ...

Indian Communal seat became vacant in April 1984 following the resignation of the former leader of the NFP, Jai Ram Reddy. When a supporter of Sidiq Koya from Ba, Dr Balwant Singh Rakkha, was selected to contest the by-election by the NFP, Davendra Singh, who was a virtual unknown, saw his chance at political glory. He managed to persuade the NFP Youth Wing, which had earlier been shunned by Koya, to support him to oppose Rakkha. He demanded that a local person be selected by NFP for the vacant seat but when he was ignored by the Party, he nominated himself for the election. (The by-election was delayed due to damage caused by a hurricane.) He had the support of the former Flower faction and also claimed Reddy's support. For his part, Reddy did not openly campaign for either candidate. During the campaign, Koya turned the election into a referendum on himself, and threatened to resign if Rakkha lost. The result was a narrow win for Singh by 2209 votes to Rakkha's 2196 votes in an election in which only 4421 of the 12,260 registered voters cast their votes. Koya did not go ahead with his threat to resign but challenged the results in the Supreme Court of Fiji, which confirmed Singh's election. The election result triggered a series of events which led to the decline of the NFP and the rise of the

Fiji Labour Party The Fiji Labour Party (FLP; ),() also known as Fiji Labour, is a political party in Fiji. Most of its support is from the Indo-Fijian community, although it is officially multiracial and its first leader was an indigenous Fijian, Dr. Timoc ...

(FLP). For a while, Singh sat as an independent member in the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...

, but in September 1985 he attempted to merge the NFP Youth Wing with the newly formed Fiji Labour Party, which the FLP refused because it would not allow group affiliation. Finally in July 1986 he joined the FLP. He contested the 1987 election as an FLP endorsed candidate and easily won the North Western National seat. He was one of the parliamentarians taken captive during the coup of 1987. He has since migrated to

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

and runs a catering business in

Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Singh, Davendra Living people Fijian emigrants to New Zealand Fiji Labour Party politicians Indian members of the House of Representatives (Fiji) Fijian Hindus 1950 births Politicians from Ba (town)