After coming in third in the election on June 7 in New Jersey for a state assembly seat, Ravinder Singh Bhalla, profiled here last month, has been elected as President of Hoboken, New Jersey’s city council by an 8-1 margin.  Would he be the first turbaned Sikh to head a city council in the United States?

UPDATE – January 11, 2012: Commenter A_itoj Singh brought to my attention that Harvinder “Harry” Singh Anand, another turbaned Sikh actually pre-dated Ravinder Singh as a turbaned Sikh who headed a city council.  Harvinder Singh was elected Mayor of Laurel Hollow (an affluent village in New York) back in 2007, and still holds this position. More information about Harvinder Singh is available on wikipedia, as well as in a 2007 article appearing in the New York Times, and in an interview with with Nikki Rattan in 2008.