File picture of prasadam being offered to villagers of Thulasenthrapuram in Tiruvarur district outside the Sri Dharma Sastha temple, after prayers for the victory of U.S. presidential nominee Kamala Harris
| Photo Credit: M. Moorthy

An air of excitement and expectancy pervades the Thulasendrapuram village in Tamil Nadu’s Tiruvarur district hoping that Kamala Harris wins in the U.S. presidential elections.

The villagers have performed prayers at the Sri Dharma Sastha temple in her ancestral village expecting her to trounce former president and Republican Donald Trump, and emerge victorious as Americans vote today to elect their next president.

Thulasendrapuram is the ancestral village of Ms. Harris’s grandfather and former Indian diplomat P.V. Gopalan. Her mother Shyamala was Gopalan’s daughter.

The village hogged the limelight in August 2020 when Ms. Harris was nominated as the Democrat vice-president candidate, and it later celebrated her victory the same year.

“Our sincere prayers are for the victory of the daughter of the soil in the election and to become the president of the most influential country in the world,” says councillor Arulmozhi and her spouse T Sudhakar, who have organised a special abishekam of sandalwood and turmeric, besides a special ‘archanai’ to the presiding deity at the Sri Dharma Sastha temple, the family deity of Ms. Harris’s ancestors.

They have erected a massive banner carrying her picture, wishing her success in the election.

Similar prayers filled the air in Madurai where Anushanathin Anugraham, a spiritual organisation, held a special prayer on November 4.

If Ms. Harris wins in the poll, then the village leaders in Painganadu in the district will offer ‘annadhanam’ (free food) to the poor.

“Her ancestors are from our village .. she is a woman fighting for the big post and we want her to win,” says Arulmozhi.

Ms. Harris’s maternal grandfather Gopalan was born in this village before moving to Chennai. He had contributed nearly ₹1 lakh to the Sri Dharma Sastha temple.

A donation of ₹5,000 was made to the temple towards its Kumbhabhishekam (consecration) in the name of Kamala Harris in 2014, indicating her connection to the temple, though no one from her family lives in the village today.

Her donation prompted the temple authorities to inscribe her name on a stone tablet containing the list of donors to the shrine.