Veena Bhatnagar

Bhatnagar at the Australian Ambassador's residence, June 2015

Veena Kumar Bhatnagar is a Fijian politician and Member of the Parliament of Fiji. She is currently Assistant Minister for Health.^[1]

Bhatnagar is a former radio personality and program director for Radio Fiji Two.^[2][3]

She was announced as a candidate for the FijiFirst Party on the 15th of August 2014 only a week after hosting a debate between a FijiFirst and an opposition party representative on her Aaina Radio show where her neutrality as host was called into question by some critics.^[4][5] She reappeared as a guest on a later episode of Aaina where she defended her performance as a host in the aforementioned debate and claimed she did not know that she was going to stand as candidate for Fiji First when she hosted the debate.^[6]

In the 2014 election Bhatnagar received 874 votes, the 82nd highest total amongst all candidates and the 32nd highest number of among Fiji First Candidates. As her party performed well enough to be eligible for 32 seats, her 874 votes was sufficient to be elected into parliament.^[7]

References

1. "20-member Cabinet announced". FBC. 2014-09-24. Retrieved 2014-09-24.
2. "Ms. Lorna Eden". Fiji First. Retrieved 2014-09-24.
3. "Veena Bhatnagar". Radio Fiji Two. Retrieved 2014-09-27.
4. "FijiFirst names Final 30". FBC. Retrieved 2014-10-11.
5. "Aaina Ep 138". FBC. Retrieved 2014-10-11.
6. "Aaina EP 142". FBC. Retrieved 2014-10-11.
7. "2014 Election Results". Fiji Elections Office. Retrieved 2014-09-23.