Indian-Americans also in run for US elections

Washington, Nov 5: Over a dozen Indian-Americans are in the run for Tuesday's US Congressional and other mid-term elections in which the Republican Party is struggling hard to retain its decade-long control of the House of Representatives and Senate in the face of tough challenges posed by the opposition Democratic Party.

Though the economy is quite good, what is going against the Republican Party is the Iraq war.

Almost all the opinion polls have given a lead to the Democratic Party in the November three poll.

Public opinion polls suggest Democrats could win enough seats to take control of the House of Representatives for the first time in 12 years. Pollsters attribute that to voter discontent over the war in Iraq. A majority of the Americans disapprove of President Bush's handling of the situation in Iraq.

Among the Indian-Americans, the most important candidate is Republican Congressman Bobby Jindal, who is seeking re-election. He is the second Indian who got elected to the House. The first was Dilip Singh Saund, who got elected to the US House of Representatives from California's 29 District as Democrat in 1957 and served the House till 1963.

Some Indian American are members of the state legislature. Most prominent among them are Kumar Barve (Maryland) and Swati Dandekar (Iowa) and Satveer Chaudhary (Minnesota). All of them have a fair chance of retaining their seats, say experts.

Kumar Barve, who is 48, is seeking an eighth term. The Washington Post has endorsed his candidature.

With barely a couple of days left to go to the polls, US politicians led by President Bush are out campaigning in favour of Republican candidates. He attended rallies in 10 states yesterday.

The President is urging fellow Republicans to focus on the economy and new figures that show US unemployment at its lowest level in more than five years.

Mr Bush says his record tax cuts have helped fuel that economic performance. Democrats in Congress say they will allow many of those cuts to expire if they win control of the House because, they say, the lost revenues have contributed to deficit spending.

UNI