WASHINGTON: Sachin Pilot was 27 and Milind Deora and Agatha Sangma were 28 when they were elected to the Lok Sabha. Lakshwadeep's Mohammed Sayeed trumped them both by making it at 26. In a demographically green country infamous for its geriatric leadership, where Madhavrao Scindia and P.Chidambaram were considered ''youthful leaders'' even after they became grandfathers, such ''Young Turks'' are considered exceptions. But the fact is that it is easier to make the cut in the Indian Lower House than in the U.S House of Representatives, both of which have 25 as the qualifying age. Dynastic succession and political pedigree give a leg up to parliamentary aspirants in India, while financial heft and constituency manipulation give aging incumbents an advantage in the U.S House of Reps where the youngest member currently is Aaron Schlock, 30. Typically, 90 per cent of U.S lawmakers are re-elected term after term, giving rise to the term "congressional stagnation."
A young Indian-American is now challenging established norms in an audacious bid to win a seat in the U.S House of Representatives. Ranjit Gill, a law student at University of California in Berkeley is just 24 (he'd have crossed the qualifying age by election day), but he's drummed up a war chest of nearly $ 500,000, the third-highest in the country for a Republican challenger, forcing the party leadership and political pundits to take notice. If Gill can pull it off, he will be the youngest U.S Congressman since 1797.
Gill, known locally by his nickname Ricky, is aiming for the Ninth Congressional District in California, which is currently held by Democrat Jerry McNerney, 60, an engineer from Pleasanton now serving his third term. Normally, few would have given the Indian-American upstart any chance, considering the monotonous regularity with which incumbents, riding on the odds stacked against challengers in terms of raising money and nursing constituency, are re-elected.
But a growing anti-incumbency mood coupled with lucky breaks in constituency redistricting offers Gill a sniffing chance, according to local reports. An electoral map approved this week by California's bipartisan Citizens Redistricting Commission will include more of San Joaquin County, where Hispanics outnumber whites, while cities like Pleasanton and Dublin (McNerney strongholds) have been moved to other districts. Local pundits say the changes have dropped areas that Gill knows nothing about and constituents who know nothing about him.
A first generation Indian-American whose parents are both physicians, Gill is pumped up in an area which has a large Sikh community involved in farming and agriculture and a big Hispanic labor force. His forbears hail from Ropar in Punjab but he was born in a town called Lodi, California (not related to the dynasty or the town from the sub-continent; it's a town most famous for Zinfandel wine) and speaks both Punjabi and Spanish.
Much of his campaign contributions are believed to come from alumni supporters at Princeton and UC Berkeley, and Indian-Americans in the medical, agricultural, and academic fraternity. ''It is a district with a very diverse strands, ethnically and economically," Gill told ToI in an interview on Saturday. "I can identify with its aspirational stories and am very suited to represent it." California's large and pedigreed Sikh community and the nearly 15 per cent Asian-American population in the district has already lined up to support him.
If he makes the cut, Gill will be just the third Indian-American to win a seat to the U.S House after Dalip Singh Saund (1956)and Bobby Jindal (2004). It's a big 'if' given the incumbency advantage in U.S where only about ten per cent seats turnover in each Congressional election. But the times they are a-changing, and Gill, to paraphrase a song by the group Credence Clearwater Revival that made his hometown famous, isn't the kind who will be ''stuck in Lodi.''
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