PTI

Washington, Feb 7: The three million-strong Indian- American community is believed to have swung the electoral fortunes of major US Presidential hopefuls, including Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, in the primaries of 'Super Tuesday'.

For Democratic Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, the community has not only played a crucial role in the run-up to the primaries both by way of physical and financial support but also with their huge concentrations in big and diverse states may have played even a "swing" role.

Indian-Americans are well dotted across the states of New York and New Jersey, the two major states going to Clinton on Tuesday night; and Illinois, the home state of Obama, also has a large population of the community that has for the most part thrown its weight behind the son of the soil.

In California, especially where the Indian American community is present in large numbers, their voting impact has certainly helped Clinton get this huge state that offered as many as 441 delegates to the national convention. There is no saying what would have happened to Clinton if she had lost California.

Exit polls in California showed that Clinton did very poorly among the White and African American population but did spectacularly well with the Asian American community by a three-to-one margin and with the Hispanic community by a two-to-one margin.