Indian-American physician Ami Bera has been officially declared elected for the US House of Representatives.
According to the official results declared yesterday, Bera of the Democratic Party defeated Republican incumbent Dan Lungren by 9,191 votes for the Seventh Congressional District in California, elections for which were held on November 6.
Only the third Indian-American to have been elected to the US House of Representatives after Dalip Singh Saundh in 1950 and Bobby Jindal in 2005, Bera received 141,241 (51.7 per cent) votes against 132,050 (48.3 per cent) gained by Lungren.
Parents of Bera, 47, immigrated from India in the 1950s.
I travelled to India. India is the world’s largest democracy, and one of the world’s largest economies. It’s an important strategic partner to the US, and the two countries have a history of collaboration on many regional and global issues,” he said in a recent interview to The Wall Street Journal.
Besides, Bera five other Indian Americans were in the race for a seat in the House of Representatives. All of them lost.
They were Ricky Gill and Jack Uppal from California, Syed Taj from Michigan, Manan Trivedi from Pennsylvania and Upendra Chivukula from New Jersey.
Except Gill who represents the Republican Party, the other five candidates were from the Democratic Party.