About
Rohini “Reah” Arora is the BC NDP candidate for Burnaby East and the sitting MLA, first elected on October 19, 2024, with 10,490 votes (about 51.9%), defeating Conservative Simon Chandler by more than 2,000 votes. Elections BC’s October 3, 2026 candidate report (6:00 p.m. stamp) lists her as Rohini Reah Arora; she previously appeared as Rohini Arora on the Oct 2 report and campaigned in 2024 as Reah Arora. She has served as deputy chair of the BC NDP government caucus and has been described as the first South Asian woman elected as a BC NDP MLA in Burnaby. Raised in Burnaby East’s Westridge neighbourhood, where her parents ran an independent pizza shop, she later worked in Alberta’s premier’s office and was director of organizing and campaigns at the BC Federation of Labour. A United Steelworkers Local 2009 member, she has served on USW national anti-racism and human-rights committees. In the 2022 Burnaby election she ran for city council with the Burnaby Citizens Association and finished ninth.