San Francisco: As US Presidential election day approaches, the 2.5-million-strong South Asian community, including tens of thousands in each of the crucial battleground States of Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan, is beginning to flex its political power.

South Asian volunteers, especially youngsters are making efforts to get the community to get out and vote and achieve a stronger political voice in an election, which many believe will have global consequences.

While the largest number of South Asians reside in New York, California and Texas, there is a significant South Asian population in the key battleground States of Florida, Ohio and Minnesota, where margin of victory is expected to range from few hundred to a few thousand votes. Florida has around 70,000 South Asian, while Ohio and Minnesota have 50,000 and 20,000, respectively.

At two phone bank parties in San Francisco, volunteers called registered South Asian voters in Florida urging them to vote for the Democrat candidate Senator John Kerry. The event is among several such events being organized throughout the nation as part of a campaign organized by South Asians for Kerry (SAKI).

During the four phone bank parties in Bay Area so far, volunteers had called approximately 4,000 potential South Asian voters in Florida. SAKI hopes to reach 20,000 registered South Asian voters in Florida alone.

"I am pretty sure it is for the first time in the history of American politics, there are phone banks targeted specifically to South Asian American voters, and South Asians are calling other South Asians in the country about a certain election," said Sanjay Wagle, a venture capitalist who is coordinating the SAKI events in California.