Because we are different.

Ami Bera creates history, enters US Congress

16 November 2012

Press Trust of India  

WASHINGTON, 16 NOV: Dr Ami Bera today won the Congressional election from California, creating history by becoming only the third Indian-American ever to have been elected for the US House of Representatives.

While the counting of votes is still going on, local daily Sacramento Bee said that Dr Bera had defeated incumbent Republican Dan Lungren for the election to California's Seventh Congressional District held on 6 November.

The Sacramento County Registrar of Voters announced today that Dr Bera increased his lead against Mr Lungren in the race and is now ahead by 2.2 per cent and leads by 5,696 votes. Dr Bera's lead has widened with each new count.

On 6 November, Dr Bera had a lead of just 184 votes, thus necessitating the counting of provisional and absentee ballots. His lead grew to 3,800 votes on Tuesday. “Today's update shows that we've processed another 38,510 ballots since Tuesday's update. This leaves an estimated 7,782 vbm and of course the 31,000 provisional ballots left to process,” the County Registrar said. Next update is scheduled for Monday.

“It's increasingly clear that the voters of Sacramento County want new leadership that puts the people first. Our lead continues to widen and we are confident that this election will be resolved in our favour,” said Dr Bera in a statement.

He is currently in Washington for an orientation course for new lawmakers, which incidentally is being led by Lungren. Bera would be only the third Indian-American to have ever been elected to the House of Representatives after Dalip Singh Saund in the 1950s, and Mr Bobby Jindal in 2005 and 2008, who is now the Governor of Louisiana.

Besides, Dr Bera, five other Indian-Americans were in the race for a seat in the House of Representatives. All of them lost. They were Mr Ricky Gill and Mr Jack Uppal from California, Syed Taj from Michigan, Mr Manan Trivedi from Pennsylvania and Mr Upendra Chivukula from New Jersey. Except for Mr Gill who represents the Republican Party, the other five candidates were from the Democratic Party.