India Diaspora Works for Modi From 8,000 Miles Away
- Ardent BJP backers overseas are getting out the vote back home
- Indians abroad revel in their homeland’s growing global status
In the basement of a suburban house just outside of Washington, Krishna Raju sits at a fold-out table with other volunteers, reads a phone number off a printed list, and makes a campaign call for an election more than 8,000 miles away.
“Hopefully, you can vote for Madhavi-ji,” he tells a voter in the Indian city of Hyderabad, referring to Madhavi Latha Kompella, a philanthropist who is running as a candidate in the election for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party.