US polls: Biden discloses names of major bundlers, including Indian Americans

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden on Sunday released the names of its major fundraisers, including Indian Americans, who helped raise at least USD 100,000 for his campaign this year. The list of 800 major donors includes a few dozen Indian Americans. Topping the list of Indian Americans are well known community leaders Swadesh Chatterjee, Rameshk Kapoor, Shekar N Narasimhan, R Rangaswami, Ajay Jain Bhutoria, and Frank Islam.

Among other prominent Indian American bundlers are Neil Makhija, Rahu, Prakash, Deepak Raj, Raj Shah, Rajan Shah, Radhika Shah, Jill and Raj Singh, Nidhi Thakar, Kiran Jain, Sony Kalsi, and Bela Bajaria. Indian-American Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal has also been listed as a bundler.

Given that the list of bundlers includes all those who have raised more than USD 100,000, the number of Indian Americans in far less than those of former presidents Barack Obama and Bil Clinton campaigns. Some of the traditional Indian-American Democratic donors like hotelier Sant Chatwal are missing from the list.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the list of “bundlers” includes a who's who of Democratic politics, including former and current governors, Senators, Cabinet secretaries and big names from Hollywood. Film producer Jeffrey Katzenberg, writer and director Lee Daniels, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman; media mogul Haim Saban and former US Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker are on the list, the daily said.

According to CNN, Biden is on track to become the first presidential candidate to raise USD 1 billion from donors in a two-year cycle, and he entered the final sprint to Election Day with a big cash advantage over US President Donald Trump. In August and September alone, Biden raised more than USD 700 million. Biden and Trump, a Republican, are facing each other in the November 3 presidential polls.  

(Image Credits: AP)