All four Democratic Indian-American lawmakers re-elected to House of Representatives
Washington: In an impressive show, all the four Indian-American Democratic lawmakers -- Dr. Ami Bera, Pramila Jayapal, Ro Khanna, and Raja Krishnamoorthi -- have been re-elected to the US House of Representatives.
The Indian-American community has emerged as a force to reckon with for the first time in the history of the US presidential election. Both the Democrat and the Republican campaigns had initiated several measures to woo the approximately 1.8 million members of the community who have emerged as a critical voting bloc in the battleground states of Florida, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Texas.
The so-called 'Samosa Caucus', a term coined by Krishnamoorthi for informal grouping of Indian-American lawmakers, might expand with at least one more as physician Dr. Hiral Tipirneni was leading against Republican incumbent David Schweikert from the sixth Congressional district of Arizona when last reports came in.
If elected, Tipirneni, 52, would be the second-ever Indian-American woman to be elected to the House of Representatives. Jayapal, 55, was the first Indian-American woman to be elected to the House of Representatives in 2016.
The 'Samosa Caucus' currently comprises five Indian-American lawmakers, including the four members of the House of Representatives and Senator and Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris, 56.
Raja Krishnamoorthi, 47, easily defeated Preston Nelson, 30, of the Libertarian Party. When last reports came in, he had accounted for nearly 71 percent of the total votes counted.
Ro Khanna, 44, easily defeated fellow Indian-American Ritesh Tandon, 48, of the Republican Party with a margin of more than 50 percentage points. This was his third-consecutive win from the 17th Congressional district of California.
Dr. Ami Bera, 55, the senior-most member of the 'Samosa Caucus', won the seventh Congressional District of California for the fifth consecutive term. When the last report came in, he had established an inaccessible lead by more than 25 percentage points against his Republican rival 65-year-old Buzz Patterson.
Meanwhile, Democratic candidate Sri Preston Kulkarni, 42, lost to his Republican rival Troy Nehls, 52, a popular sheriff and military veteran endorsed by President Donald Trump, in the 22nd Congressional district of Texas.
Republican Manga Anantatmula lost to Democratic incumbent Gerry Connolly in the 11th Congressional District of Virginia. Republican Nisha Sharma from the Republican Party also lost her maiden Congressional attempt. She was defeated by incumbent Mark DeSaulnier from the Democratic Party by more than 50 percentage points.
The House of Representatives is the lower house of the US Congress, with the Senate being the upper house.
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SC refuses urgent hearing of plea challenging MCD notification on picking of stray dogs
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Thursday refused urgent listing of a plea challenging a notification issued by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi with regard to picking up of stray dogs.
A bench of Justices J K Maheshwari and Vijay Bishnoi declined to accord urgent hearing after a lawyer mentioned that an application has been filed in this regard.
The application submitted that MCD issued the notification despite orders having been reserved by the apex court.
The whole problem of stray dogs in Delhi-NCR is because of "inaction" of local authorities, the top court had said on August 14 while reserving its order on the interim prayer seeking a stay on the August 11 directions passed by the apex court.
A three-judge bench of Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta and N V Anjaria had reserved its order in the matter.
A two-judge bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and R Mahadevan had on August 11 directed authorities in Delhi-NCR to start picking up stray dogs from all localities "at the earliest" and relocate the animals to dog shelters.
The bench had directed the authorities to immediately create dog shelters and report to it about the creation of such infrastructure within eight weeks.
It had said stray dogs would be detained in shelters and not be released on streets, colonies or public places.
The apex court had passed a slew of directions on August 11 while hearing a suo motu case initiated on July 28 over stray dog bites leading to rabies, particularly among children, in the national capital.
