NEW YORK (TIP): At a meeting organized by Malini Shah at the residence of Harbachan Singh on January 25, 2014 a group of motivated Indian Americans joined together to provide support to Ms. Swati Dandekar, a candidate of Indian origin, who is making a run for a US Congress seat from the State of Iowa this fall.

Swati Dandekar won a seat in the Iowa State Assembly in 2002 and a seat in the Iowa Senate in 2009 and is now geared up for winning a seat in US. Congress. In welcoming Swati Dandekar, Harbachan Singh, a community activist and a leader of several organizations, said that Swati was a professional and a seasoned politician.

Her experience and performance during the last ten years is a glowing testimony that she is fully ready, dynamic and highly capable of best representing all the people of Iowa in particular and all of us of Indian origin in general in the US Congress. Her success will resonate in US and in India alike and will demonstrate that we are capable and willing to fill leadership positions and contribute in the beautiful mosaic of the US political system.

Swati Dandekar with Mr. Mulay and a group of her supporters

Consul General Ambassador Dnyaneshwar Mulay who also attended the event was very happy to note that Indian Americans were coming forward to play an active role in the politics of their new homeland. He believed that it was their civic duty to fully engage themselves in all the activities of Government and also help build bridges between the two largest democracies in the world. He urged all Indian Americans to help each other and assimilate and integrate nicely with the local communities and keep forging ahead up the ladder to leadership levels.

George Abraham congratulated Ms. Dandekar on her success in Iowa and wished her support and cooperation in her bid to become the first Congresswoman from the State. Sunil Modi and Eric Kumar also spoke lauding the efforts of Swati. Others present were Mohinder Singh Gilzian, Dilip Chauhan, Gunjan Rastogi, Leela Maret, Oommen Koshy, Gajendra Ganesan, Manoj Shinde, Piyush Patel, Arvind Dandekar, Prof. Indrajit Singh Saluja, Benjamin Gaines and Niti Kapoor. Others who could not attend but lent support included, Pam Kwatra, Dr. Binod Verma, Thomas Abraham and Indu Jaiswal. Special guest of the evening was the former Lt. Governor of the State of Iowa Hon. Patty Judge.