The dominance of Indian-Americans is increasing in America’s elections.
Washington: Till a few decades ago, only a few Indian names were visible in American politics, but the situation has changed rapidly in the last few years. Talking about today, more than 3 dozen Indian Americans are in the fray for the local body and state elections being held in America. Indian-American Congressman Raja Krishnamurthy believes, ‘If you are not at the table, you are on the menu.’ He is often seen delivering the same message at various Indian-American events, motivating and encouraging community members to contest elections at all levels.
California becomes stronghold of Indian-American leaders
The biggest example of Indian-Americans dominating local elections is being seen in California, where two Indian-American representatives, Ro Khanna and Dr. Ami Bera, serve in Congress. Apart from this, Vice President Kamala Harris’s mother was also born in India. Some of the prominent names contesting the elections in California include Aadla Chisti (County Supervisor, District 11), Aliya Chisti (San Francisco City College Board), Darshana Patel (State Assembly), Nicolae Fernandez (San Mateo City Council), Nitya Raman. (Los Angeles City Council), Richa Awasthi (Foster City Council) and Sukhdeep Kaur (Emeryville City Council).
Additionally, Tara Srikrishnan is contesting from District 26 of the California State Assembly in Silicon Valley. Let us tell you that there are about 9 lakh Indian-American residents in California, and this state is the largest stronghold of the Indian-American community in the entire America.
There is no less presence in other states also
Many Indian-American candidates are also active in Michigan where there is very close competition for all the seats in which the difference of votes comes down to just 10 thousand. In Michigan, Dr. Ajay Raman (Oakland County Commissioner, District 14) and Anil Kumar and Ranjeev Puri (Michigan State House) are in the fray. In Arizona, Priya Sundaresan is contesting for State Assembly and Ravi Shah is contesting for School Board. In Pennsylvania, Anand Patekar, Anna Thomas, and Arvind Venkat are candidates for State House and Nikil Saval for State Senate.
Ashwin Ramaswamy from Georgia in discussion
Ashwin Ramaswamy is contesting for the State Senate in Georgia and if he wins the election, he will become the youngest member in the Georgia State Senate. However, he has faced racial and hate comments during the election contest. In Illinois, Anusha Thothkura is running for school board and Nabeel Syed is running for state House. In Ohio, Chantel Raghu is running for county commissioner and Pawan Parikh is running for county clerk of courts. Meanwhile, in Virginia, Danny Avula is a candidate for the post of mayor of Richmond.
Indians are also dominant in Texas
Texas also has a long list of Indian-American candidates, including Ashika Ganguly (City Council), Karthik Sura (State Senate), Nabeel Shaik (County Constable), Ramesh Premkumar (City Council), Ravi Sandil (Judge), Salman Bhojani ( State House), Shekhar Sinha (State House), Shareen Thomas (Judge), Suleman Lalani (State House) and Sumbal Zeb (County Appraisal Court). Whereas in New York, Jeremy Cooney and Manita Sangvi are contesting for State Senate and Johan Mamdani is contesting for State Assembly. In Washington, Manka Dhingra is in the election race for the post of Attorney General, while Mona Das is a candidate for the post of Public Lands Commissioner.
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