Candidates in Fresno council races denounce racist complaint as election nears
Candidates for Fresno City Council are calling a complaint filed against them “racist.”
An anonymous complaint to the Fresno City Attorney’s Office alleges that Naindeep Singh, running for District 1, and Nav Gurm, running for District 7, of various campaign improprieties.
The complaint mostly focused on Singh, a Central Unified trustee and founder of the Jakara Movement. Several of the charges do not appear to be violations of campaign finance law. One charge made in the complaint is using his influence to rename a Fresno park and a new school for Jaswant Singh Khalra, a Sikh activist who died in 1995.
“Naindeep and his fellow Sikhs support terrorism, racism, anti-constitutional, antigovernment policies including illegal immigration, supporting illegals for international driver’s license or non-domicile licenses,” the complaint said.
Both Singh and Gurm called out the complaint.
“These are the baseless, desperate lies of a person with little relevance beyond running smear campaigns rooted in racism, anti-immigrant hatred, Sikhphobia, and wholesale innuendo. No serious person would give this a moment’s credibility,” Singh said.
Said Gurm: “It’s a racist, bigoted complaint. It holds no merit, but frankly, the language used in that complaint is disgusting.”
Fresno City Attorney Andrew Janz said the complaint came through the mail on May 26 with no return address. He said he already closed the case because the allegations do not fall within his jurisdiction.
Another candidate denounces Instagram parody account
Ariana Martinez Lott, also running in the District 7 race, took to Facebook to denounce a post made on the Fresnobland Instagram account. The social media page appears to be a parody, poking fun at Fresno officials. The page has no contact information about who is behind the posts.
The post, using an altered image of Martinez Lott, used wording to mock an accent.
“With one week to Election Day, #Fresno City Council candidate Arianna Lott made a direct appeal to Southeast Asian voters to vote by “’speaking their language,’” accompanying text in the post said.
Lott called one post “racist,” for mocking Asians.
“I will not stand for any kind of RACISM. Disgraceful, low, and incredibly RACIST! I ask my community to stand against his disgusting post,” Martinez Lott wrote.
Martinez Lott also called Fresnobland “shameful.”
“Whoever hides behind this page has a record of pathetically going after candidates, elected, and community leaders who are challenging the local political pipeline,” Martinez Lott wrote.
This story was originally published May 28, 2026 at 5:54 PM.
