Omar Vaid and Mohan Radhakrishnan have announced to fight out the Democratic primary to earn the party's nomination for the November mid-term general elections to defeat the Republican incumbent Congressman Don Donavan in New York's 11th Congressional District.
While New York is a heavily Democratic leaning State, the 11th Congressional District of late has emerged as a Republican stronghold.
US President Donald Trump had won the seat in 2016.
Both Vaid and Mohan seek to unseat Donavan this time.
Son of two immigrant parents of Gujarati-Indian heritage, Vaid grew up as a Muslim in Illinois and Florida, according to his campaign website.
As a member of the Democratic Party, he believes diversity is an asset and that all voices must be included, it says.
Vaid says that Trump has put the country on a path towards an "isolationist" foreign policy.
He is running on the platform of free-market platform, climate change and improving the transportation system instead of border wall.
An eminent community leader, he is a member of the Staten Island Hindu Temple Board.
"Our Democracy and country is going through a difficult time under the current administration and we should not let it go too far," he said.
Currently there are four Indian-Americans in the US House of Representatives.
In addition to Ami Bera from California who is serving his third term, three others -- Ro Khanna from California, Raja Krishnamoorthi from Illinois and Pramila Jayapal from Washington -- were elected for the first term in 2016.
Senator Kamala Harris from California is of mixed Indian and American heritage.
Quite a significant number of Indian-Americans are running for US Congress from various parts of the country.
Krishnamoorthi is facing two Indian-Americans Vandana Jhingan and Jitender Digankar from the Republican party in his re-election bid.
Among other Indian-Americans running for Congress are Aruna Miller from Maryland; Anita Malik and Hiral Tipirneni from Arizona; Chintan Desai from Arkansas; Sapan Shah from Illinois, Harry Arora from Connecticut, Abhijit Das from Massachusetts, Suraj Patel from New York, Sri Preston Kulkarni from Texas, Saira Rao from Colorado; Deep Saran from Virginia and Peter Jacob from New Jersey.
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