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With sacred chants, ringing of bells and offerings of flowers and bananas, a Hindu priest in Kamala Harris’ ancestral village in southern India conducted prayers on Tuesday for her victory in the US presidential election.
The temple ceremony in Thulasendrapuram, in the state of Tamil Nadu, was organised by local villagers and attended by more than a dozen of them and a few tourists.
Harris’ maternal grandfather PV Gopalan was born more than a century ago in Thulasendrapuram before migrating to the state capital Chennai. He was a high-ranking government official at the time of his retirement.
At the temple, Harris’ name is engraved on a stone that lists public donations, along with that of her grandfather. Outside, a banner was erected that wished “the daughter of the land” success in the election.
The village received global attention four years ago, when its residents prayed for victory for Harris’ Democratic Party in 2020 before celebrating her inauguration as US Vice President by setting off firecrackers and distributing food.
The prayers in Thulasendrapuram on Tuesday attracted a handful of tourists, including two American and one British woman wearing “Kamala Freakin Harris” shirts and chanting “Go Kamala!”
“I am very pro-Kamala, so I wanted to experience her native village,” said Devony Evans, a Chennai-based expat who said she voted for Harris and is from Seattle, Washington.
Harris, who was born to an Indian mother and a Jamaican father who both immigrated to the United States to study, visited Thulasendrapuram when she was five and has recalled walks with her grandfather on the beach in Chennai.
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