‘Samosa Caucus’ fails to increase its strength

Washington, November 8 

The so-called ‘Samosa Caucus’, an informal group of the Indian-Americans in the US Congress, has failed to bolster its strength, though its all four incumbent members got re-elected to the House of Representatives in the crucial midterm elections.

Pramila Jayapal, Ro Khanna and Raja Krishnamoorthi all won in landslides, while Ami Bera, the longtime US representative in California’s 7th Congressional District, won in a more closely-contested race.

In the eighth Congressional District of Illinois, 45-year-old Krishnamoorthi was re-elected for the second term by a comfortable margin of more than 30 percentage points. He defeated his Indian American Republican opponent J D Diganvker.

Three-term lawmaker 53-year-old Bera was re-elected for a record fourth consecutive time from the seventh Congressional District of California. Unlike the previous three elections, Bera did not had to wait for weeks for recounting of votes. He defeated Andrew Grant of the Republican party by a small five percentage margin.

In the Silicon Valley, Khanna, 42, defeated Ron Cohen of the Republican party with a massive 44 percentage point in the 17th Congressional District of California. 

“Tonight was a great night for our campaign and for Democrats across the country. I’m grateful to the voters of #CA17 for giving me the opportunity to continue to represent you in Congress. This has been the honour of my life,” Khanna said.

Congresswoman Jayapal, the only Indian-American woman lawmaker in the House of Representatives, defeated her Republican rival Craig Keller by a massive 66 percentage points.

None of the more than half a dozen new Indian-Americans candidates, many of whom caught national attention by giving tough fight to their opponents and outraising them in the fund raisers, could make it to the House of Representatives, which is equivalent to Lok Sabha in the Indian parliament.

However, Indian-Americans picked up more seats in the State assemblies.  For the first time, more than 100 Indian-Americans had entered the race in this mid-term elections, of which over 50 were on the ballot on Tuesday. Among them 12, including four incumbents, were running for the House and one for the Senate, a record in itself. — PTI