With 'Special Rangoli', TN village roots for Kamala Harris victory in US polls

The villagers of Thulasendrapuram in Tamil Nadu's Tiruvarur district, are rooting for US vice-presidential candidate Kamala Harris. Harris was born to a Jamaican father and an Indian mother and has connections to Thulasendrapuram.

Tiruvarur (Tamil Nadu): Residents of Thulasendrapuram, a village in Tamil Nadu's Tiruvarur district, the ancestral village of Kamala Harris are rooting for the US vice-presidential candidate and made 'rangoli' to show their support for her.

"We believe that after winning US Elections 2020, she'll come and meet us," said a local. Counting of votes for the election, which concluded on November 3 is still underway. All around the village are flex boards and banners sporting photographs of Harris and wishing her victory. The special colourful rangoli drawn by a few women in the village sports the message 'We Wish Kamala Harris' along with a thumbs-up sign.

The village has been news since the day, Democratic candidate as his running mate and Vice Presidential nominee. Harris was born to a Jamaican father and an Indian mother Shyamala Gopalan, who was born in Chennai before she moved to the US for further study. Shyamala was a leading cancer researcher and activist. Harris's maternal grandfather was born in Thulasenthirapuram, located about 320 km south of the city of Chennai. Shyamala was the daughter of PV Gopalan, a high-ranking civil servant.

Senator Harris, if elected, would be the first woman vice president ever for the US. Harris is the first Indian-American to be elected district attorney of San Francisco, the first South Asian American to become a US senator and if elected, she will be the first person of Indian descent to hold a major political office in the United States. Fifty-five-year-old Kamala Harris began her career in the 1990s at the Alameda County District Attorney's Office in the city of Oakland and later became the first woman of colour in 2011 to serve as California's attorney general.

ANI