Even as uncertainty looms over the second Presidential debate between President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger Joe Biden scheduled on October 15 Indian American voters appear to be a divided lot. Against the general trend of minorities, such as Indian Americans, voting largely in favour of the Democratic Party this time a substantial number of them may vote for the Republican Party.
It has generally been observed in the US elections that Blacks, Jews, South Asians, Arabs, Latinos and other migrants usually vote for the Democratic Party in large numbers. But this time the scenario seems to be somewhat different. Relatively a big number of Indian Americans votes may go to the Republican Party.
An analyst whom thenewsweb.in talked to attributes this phenomenon to the growing expansion of RSS among those migrants who have their roots in North Indian states. However in contrast those hailing from South Indian states are strongly favouring the Democratic Party. This is largely because of the presence of Kamala Harris who is its vice Presidential candidate.
Kamala’s mother was originally from Tamil Nadu while her father was a Black from Jamaica who settled in the US. Though the Republican Party claims that shift in North Indian voters is largely because of the good chemistry between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Trump. Last year in the Howdy Modi show in Houston the Indian Prime Minister openly endorsed President Trump.
When the latter visited Ahmedabad in February this year to attend the Namaste Trump event the US President openly applauded the Indian Prime Minister. However many US watchers are of the view that the personal relationship between the US President and the Indian Prime Minister do not have much impact on the election in that country.
At the personal level the then US President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Modi were good friends. If a relatively large number of Indian Americans vote for the Republican Party it would be considered as a new development. Incidentally many Indian Americans were upset when Trump sometimes back said that India has been doing little to check the rise in Corona Virus cases. They were also not very appreciative of the present President’s trade policy towards India.
