By Arun Kumar, IANS,
Washington : As many as 10 Indian-Americans are eyeing high political office from governor to attorney general to membership of the House of Representatives in the November 2014 Congressional and state elections.
With two Indian-Americans, Bobby Jindal and Nikky Haley, already holding the governor’s jobs in Louisiana and South Carolina respectively, a third one, Neel Kashkari, a former top treasury department official, has entered the fray in California.
Another Indian-American, Kamala Harris is seeking re-election for attorney general in California, America’s largest state in terms of population which is home to thousands of Indian-American techies.
Ami Bera, the only Indian-American Congressman and the third ever, is seeking re-election from the Seventh Congressional District of California, while Ro Khanna, a former top Obama administration official, is challenging sitting Democrat Mike Honda in the 17th District.
Challenging Democrat Khanna, former deputy assistant secretary of commerce, is yet another Indian-American, Vanila Mathur Singh.
An associate professor at Stanford University’s School of Medicine, she has entered the fray from the Republican Party.
Democrat Upendra Chivukula, the first Indian-American lawmaker in New Jersey state assembly, now plans to run for the US House of Representatives from the state’s 12th Congressional District with party colleague Rush Holt retiring.
After losing twice, Democrat Manan Trivedi plans to run for the House of Representatives for the third time in Pennsylvania.
Indian-American film maker Amerdeep Kaleka is challenging 2012 Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan in the first Congressional District of Wisconsin.
He is the son of the Wisconsin Sikh Temple (gurdwara) president Satwant Kaleka, one of the six victims of the August 2012 Oak Creek gurdwara shootout.
Swati Dandekar, the first Indian-American to be elected to Iowa House of Representatives in 2002, is now seeking to enter the US Congress.
Indian-American Manju Goel is seeking election on a Republican ticket from the Eighth Congressional District of Illinois.
(Arun Kumar can be contacted at [email protected])