New York: At least three Indian-Americans have been elected to state legislatures in the just-concluded American midterm polls, but none of the community members, including Ayesha F Nariman, could make it to the US Congress.

Among successful candidates are Swati Dandekar who was elected to Iowa state Assembly, Kumar Barve re-elected to Maryland House of Delegates and Satveer Chaudhary elected to Minnesota state Senate - all 3 winning on Democratic tickets.

Barve is the longest serving elected representative of Indian origin, having successfully contested the polls since 1990. He is a member of House Committee on Economic Matters.

President of the National Federation of Indian-American Associations, Bhaillal, congratulated the winners and told the unsuccessful candidates that "their effort would not go waste and that they would provide inspiration to other Indian-Americans to enter active politics."

"Nice try," he told them.

None of the Indian-American candidates could make it to either the House of Representatives or Senate.

Besides Nariman - a Democrat from New York, those who tried for US House of Representatives and lost include Stuart Johnson, Republican from California, Vij Pawar, Democrat from New Jersey, Syed Mohmood, Republican from California, and D C Amarrsinghe of Green Party from Virginia.

According to the latest census figures available, the Indian-American population is 1.7 million strong, which roughly translates into three seats in the Congress and 45 in the state legislatures. However, Indians who have done well professionally in the US have cared little about politics and it is only recently that they have started coming into active politics.

PTI