Two Indian-Americans in race for NY Congress seat

NEW YORK: Two Indian-Americans from the

Democratic party

have thrown their hats in the ring for the same

Congressional

seat from New York in the US House of Representatives. Omar Vaid and Radhakrishna Mohan have announced to fight out the Democratic primary to earn the party’s nomination for the November mid-term general elections to defeat the

Republican

incumbent Congressman Don

Donavan

in New York’s 11th congressional district.

While New York is a heavily Democratic leaning state, the 11th congressional district of late has emerged as a Republican stronghold. A majority of voters from the district had voted in favour of US President Trump in the 2016 presidential polls. Vaid and Mohan seek to unseat Donavan. But before that they need to win the Democratic party primary for which at present more than half a dozen candidates are in the race.

Son of two immigrant parents of

Gujarati-Indian

heritage, Vaid grew up as a Muslim in Illinois and Florida, according to his campaign website. As a member of the Democratic Party, he believes diversity is an asset and that all voices must be included, it says.

A labour union leader, Mohan has been a resident of New York’s Staten Island for over 27 years. He is an eminent community leader and a member of the Staten Island Hindu Temple Board. “Our democracy and country is going through a difficult time under the current administration and we should not let it go too far,” he said.

Right now there are four Indian-Americans in the US House of Representatives. In addition to Ami Bera from California who is serving his third term, Ro Khanna from California, Raja Krishnamoorthi from Illinois and Pramila Jayapal from Washington were elected in 2016. They have informally formed the “Samosa Caucus”. PTI