Will Silicon Valley Elect A Desi Congressman This Time? 

California's 17th congressional district, the only Asian-American majority constituency in the United States, has been represented by Mike Honda, A Japanese-American lawmaker not once, not twice but eight times. This time around, chances are bright that he could be upstaged by a young Indian-American Democrat, Rohit Khanna.

Rohit Khanna, son of an IIT engineer and a school teacher lost narrowly to Mike Honda in 2014 (51.8-48.2). Khanna however reckons that this time things would be different from 2014.

The 17th district, encompassing the cities of Sunnyvale, Cupertino, Santa Clara, Fremont, Newark, North San Jose, and Milpitas has several distinctions. Not only does it have the cream of American tech companies, it is said to be the only Asian-American majority constituency in continental United States.

It is also home to probably the largest concentration of “desi“ population in the US, (over 25,000) and also one of the richest constituencies in the US with an average annual household income of $100,000.

Khanna already has the backing of several American-Indians and tech giants. Among those who have endorsed him so far are Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg, Google's Sundar Pichai, Kleiner Perkins' John Doerr, browser pioneer Marc Andreesen, and venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, who's holding a fund-raiser for Khanna on later this month.

Khanna also counts on the support of his newly married wife Ritu Ahuja, who he thinks of as nothing short of a game changer, given her people skills. Khanna also benefits from the fact that Honda also lost the support of President Obama because of his ethics investigation.

The Indian Diaspora in the US has been making rapid progress in the recent past. Having achieved distinctions in education, professional excellence, income and influence, it remains to be seen if it can make a political breakthrough as well.