Indian-Americans raise over $10 mn for Clinton Campaign

Washington: Indian-Americans are believed to have raised at least USD 10 million towards the election campaign to elect Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton as the next president of the US.

At least two of the Indian-Americans philanthropist Frank Islam from Maryland and Shefali Razdan Duggal from California alone have helped raising a million dollar each for the presidential campaign of the former First Lady and the secretary of state, campaign insiders told PTI.

Notably, the Hillary Campaign does not give details of the major fundraisers and the amount of money raised by them.

It does have a group called 'Hillblazers' which has list of individuals who have contributed and/or raised USD 100,000 or more for Hillary for America, the Hillary Victory Fund, and/or the Hillary Action Fund since the launch of this historic campaign on April 12, 2015.

Among those listed in the latest list of Hillblazers released by the Clinton Campaign are more than 30 Indian Americans, each of them raising a minimum of USD 100,000.

However, these Indian-Americans are reported to have raised much more than that, campaign insiders said.

For instance, Ajay and Vinita Bhutoria from San Francisco is understood to have contributed or raised more than USD 500,000 for the Hillary Campaign.

Among other Indian-American Hillblazers as released by the Hillary Campaign are Monica Arora and Raj Goyle from New York, Raj Fernando from Chicago, Mahinder Tak from Maryland, Seema R Hingorani from New York, Shekar Narshiman from Virginia, Kamil and Talat Hasan from California.

While there is no compilation of fund raising figures based on ethnicity, multiple sources said that they estimate the conservative amount of money raised by Indian-Americans for Clinton is at least USD 10 million.

It is also believed that Indian-Americans are only second highest fund raiser after the powerful and influential Israeli American community.

Among other Indian-Americans who figure in Hillblazers are Shradha Agarwal from Chicago, Ankit N Desai from Washington DC, Aashish and Dinyar Devitre from New York, Sanjay Govil from Maryland, Maneesh K Goyal from New York, Margaret and Shashikant Gupta from Virginia; Amrita and Ashok Mahbubani from Alabama, Deven J Parekh from New York, and Reshma M Saujani from New York.

Radhika Shah from Silicon Valley, Rishi Shah and Smita Shah from Chicago; Kabir and Noreen Shahani from Seattle, M Osman Siddique from Virginia, Amy Singh from Chicago, Smita Singh from San Francisco; Pradeep and Ranjana Sinha from Atlanta have also raised a minimum of USD 100,000 for the Hillary Campaign.