Democratic vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris, who believes that “everything is at stake” in the US presidential elections has strong support from her ancestral village in a southern corner of Tamil Nadu.
On Tuesday morning, people from Harris’s maternal grandfather’s village in Tiruvarur district held a special prayer for her and erected posters with her photos. The Dharmasastha temple authorities and local leaders also offered as annadhanam (free food for the poor) idli-sambhar.
Senator Harris had said that idli-sambhar is her favorite South Indian dish that she enjoyed during her childhood visits to Chennai with her mother Shyamala Gopalan, who was born in the city. Harris particularly struck a chord with her roots when she called her ‘chithis’ (referring to a father’s younger sister in Tamil) during her August speech at the Democratic National Convention.
The town has been celebrating by making poojas and erecting flexible banners since Joe Biden announced Harris as his running mate. “We want her to win. Their achievements are a source of pride for India and particularly for our village, ”said Arulmozhi Sudhakar, local village head from Thulasendhirapuram, Painganadu in Tiruvarur district. Harris’s grandfather, PV Gopalan, was born in this town and his family has been offering donations to the temple.
“In 2014, her mother Shyamala made a donation to the temple on behalf of Kamala Harris so that the villagers would know about her,” Sudhakar said.
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