Washington: Led by the high profile Republican Bobby Jindal, as many as nine Indian Americans won in the November 7 US elections to national, state and local offices, notching up one of their best performances to date.
There were 23 Indian Americans running for various offices in the elections.
The incumbent Jindal won the race to the US Congress from the 1st District in Louisiana with a thumping majority of 87.9 per cent (71,493), with his three opponents together garnering less than 11,000 votes.
He is only the second person of Indian origin to enter the US Congress after Dilip Singh Saund won more than 50 years back from California.
With their victories, Indian Americans now have representation in six state legislatures (New Jersey, Maryland, Iowa, Minnesota, Kansas and Ohio) in addition to the US Congress through Representative Jindal.
Among the winners are entrenched Indian American legislators Kumar Barve in Maryland, Satveer Chaudhary in Minnesota and Swati Dandekar in Iowa - all of whom notched up comfortable victories.
In South Carolina, incumbent Republican Nikki Randhawa ran unopposed from District 52 for a seat in the State House.
Among the new entrants are Jay Goyal, 26, Democrat, who defeated Phillip Holloway in the 73rd District to win a seat in the Ohio state House. He polled 63 per cent of the vote to his rival's 36 per cent.
In the 87th district in Kansas, Democrat Raj Goyle, 31, beat three-term Representative Bonnie Huy, polling 56 per cent against Huy's 44 per cent.
In New Hampshire, Republican Saghir Tahir made it to the State House from District 50 - one of six Republicans from the Manchester area who managed to win back their seats in a state that voted overwhelmingly Democrat.
Another winner was Rajan Zed, who ran unopposed for the General Improvement District Trustee of Verdi TV District.
Among the Indian Americans who were re-elected, Minnesota State Senator Chaudhary, a Democrat and the first Asian American to be elected to the Minnesota legislature, retained his District 50 seat comfortably, winning 64 per cent of the votes.
An attorney with his roots in Haryana, Chaudhary's constituency is largely White with hardly any Indian American constituents.
In Iowa, State Representative Dandekar, won for the third time from District 36 in Marion, beating her Republican rival Nick Wagner by 55 per cent to 45.
Maharashtra-born Dandekar, who arrived in the US in 1972 soon after her marriage, received considerable support from the Indian American community.
Maryland House of Delegates Majority Leader Kumar Barve, often referred to as the "Dean of Indian American Democrats" and the longest-serving US legislature of Indian origin, also won comfortably from District 17, bagging 24 per cent of the vote, the third-highest of three top Democratic vote-getters whose total vote was around 75 per cent.
Unsuccessfully emulating Representative Jindal's run for federal office were three Indian Americans, all of whom performed creditably.
Democrat Ajinderpal Singh Sekhon won 32 per cent of the vote in California's District 2, losing to long-time incumbent Republican Wally Herger's 64.2 per cent.
Republican Raj Bhakta, contesting from Pennsylvania's District 13, did better, especially given the anti-Republican trend, securing 34 per cent of vote against Democratic incumbent Allyson Schwartz, who polled 66 per cent.
In Virginia, Independent candidate Neeraj Nigam, polled a paltry 1 per cent of the vote in District 10. Republican Frank Wolf won with 58 per cent, while Democrat Judy Feder got 41 per cent.
Two election results involving Indian Americans are still awaited. In Maryland's District 42, Republican Dilip Paliath was not among the top three vote-getters, although there were some 6,000 mail-in ballots yet to be counted which could change the results.
In New York's District 15, State Senate, Albert Baldeo, Democrat, won 48.83 votes to his opponent Republican Serphin R. Maltese's 51.17. The vote difference is a mere 783. He has said he was seeking a recount.
Among the prominent losers were Bhagwan Dashairya (Constitution Party of Michigan) who ran for Michigan Governor and secured less than 1 per cent of the vote in a race swept by Democratic incumbent Jennifer Granholm.
Democrat Neeta Sane, who ran for Fort Bend, Texas, County Treasurer, put up a strong fight getting 45 per cent of the vote against Republican Jeff Council's 55 per cent.
Republican Jay Bala running for Maryland House from District 28, got a good response for a first-time candidate at 34.26 per cent of the vote to 65.74 per cent of Democrat Tom Middleton.
Republican Neil B Sood, running for Maryland State Assembly from District 21 polled 12.1 percent of the vote.
Other losers included Morshed Alam (Republican) in New York's District 25;
Khorshed Chowdhury (Republican) in New York's District 54; Rano Singh (Democrat), running for Arizona State Treasurer; Prameela Kaza (Democrat), running for Delware Delaware State House from District 31; and Mehul Thakker (Green Party), running for California State Treasurer.
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