US presidential polls: Indian roots in election wins

Chennai: Three Indian Americans, including two women, who have been elected to the US Congress and Senate, have one thing in common. They all have roots in Chennai and Tamil Nadu.

Indian-American Democrat Raja Krishnamoorthi, 43, who won the Congressional election from Illinois, defeating Republican former Elmhurst mayor Peter DiCianni, is New Delhi-born and has parental roots in Chennai.

This laboratory executive was born on July 19, 1973. His parents immigrated to Buffalo New York when he was three months old. He serves as president of Sivananthan Labs and Episolar, Inc, and is co-founder of InSPIRE, a non-profit organisation.

The 8th Congressional district from where he won the Chicago-area US House of Representatives seat, has quite some Asian- Americans with sizeable Indian-American population.

This policy director and senior advisor for Mr Barack Obama, is the second India-born member of the Congress after Dalip Singh Soundh in 1950.

The 51-year-old Pramila Jayapal became the first Indian-American woman to be elected to the US House of Representative, winning the Washington state Senate seat, by defeating her rival Brady Walkinshaw. Ms Jayapal entered the US Congress in her maiden attempt. Born in Chennai, she left India at the age of five for Indonesia, Singapore, and eventually for the US. She authored the book -- “Pilgrimage to India: A Woman Revisits Her Homeland” in 2000.

Indian-American Kamala Harris too scripted history when she emerged victorious in the key election for the US Senate seat from California, becoming the first black and Asian Senator from the state. The 52-year-old Kamala, California’s Attorney General, is the first Indian-American to achieve the feat.

She is the first black woman elected to the upper chamber in more than two decades. Her mother Shyamala Gopalan came to the US from Chennai in 1960 to study science.