Told Kamala yesterday she’s going to win, says proud uncle

Gopalan Balachandran, maternal uncle of Kamala Harris, said he was feeling “proud and happy”, describing her as a fighter.

Soaking in the moment of glory, Gopalan Balachandran, maternal uncle of Senator Kamala Harris, on Saturday said he told her niece a day earlier that she was “going to win” to become the next US vice president.

Harris, 56, who is of Indian origin, has become the first-ever woman vice president-elect of the US. (Reuters/Jim Bourg)

Democrat Joe Biden defeated incumbent Republican President Donald Trump in the closely-fought presidential election, according to American media projections.

Harris, 56, who is of Indian origin, has become the first-ever woman vice president-elect of the US. She will also be the first Indian-origin, first Black and first African American vice president of the country.

Delhi-based Balachandran said he was feeling “proud and happy”, describing Harris as a fighter.

“Biden-Harris victory is what we wanted to see. And, given the numbers, I told Kamala yesterday that she is going to win,” he told PTI when asked if the counting process made him tense.

Biden, the 77-year-old former vice president, will become the 46th president of the United States, the CNN reported, after a victory in Pennsylvania, the state where he was born put him over the 270 electoral votes needed to win.

She was born to two immigrant parents: a Black father and an Indian mother. Her father, Donald Harris, was from Jamaica, and her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, a cancer researcher and civil rights activist from Chennai.

In an interview to PTI in August, Balachandran had said that Harris’ nomination as the vice presidential candidate was a “historic moment”, but it was not a surprise at all for him.

Harris’ maternal uncle had said that she would script many firsts if she won and expressed the hope her top-level position would give Indians in the US “greater access” in interacting with the US administration.