LEXINGTON, MA—Six Indian-American candidates won in the highly-contested local elections for representation at Town Meeting in the historic town of Lexington, MA. Two other Indian-American candidates, Anisha Karody and Neerja Bajaj, ran but did not win.
As a result of the Monday’s elections, a total of 13 Indian-Americans will sit the 200-member Town Meeting of Lexington.
The following Indian-Americans won their seats for Town Meeting: Narain Bhatia, Sunny Chandra, Dinesh Patel, Vineeta Kumar, Hema Bhatt and Vikas Kinger.
“In one of the most contested Lexington elections in recent times, the Indian American candidates had a strong showing. Representation at Town Meeting is now at 13 out of ~200 people and roughly matches the demographics of the town,” said Sanjay Padaki, a Lexington resident who has played an important role in organizing India-Americans in local elections. “This was also the first time an Indian-American ran for the town-wide School Committee position and came in a strong third place in a crowded seven person contest.”
Bajaj, who ran for School Committee, lost in a seven-way race.
Bhatia, a long-time resident of Lexington who won the Town Meeting election and has been one of the pioneers of energizing Indian-Americans to run for local elections in Lexington, said that it is exciting to have Indian-American participate and win in location elections, but the this momentum must continue.
“This is a movement that has to continue in order to succeed,” Bhatia told INDIA New England News.
“This is the third Lexington election of unprecedented success for Indian Americans and while we are proud we are learning and will have to work harder to keep it up. The competition this year was unbelievable.”
Lexington is the only town in the United States where Indian-Americans occupy such a large number of seats in local elections.
