Chennai, Aug 12 (IANS): Tamil Nadu's political parties are still to react on selection of US Senator Kamala Harris, who has roots in Chennai, as the running mate of Democrat Party's Presidential candidate Joe Biden for the November elections, while her aunt here is thrilled.

There has been no tweet or statement from any of the political parties here.

Kamala Harris, whose mother tongue is Tamil, is the first Indian-American to be the Vice Presidential choice in a US Presidential election.

Her mother Shyamala Gopalan had gone to the US to study medicine and became a cancer researcher. She later married Donald Harris, a Jamaican economist. The couple had two daughters - Kamala and Maya - but subsequently divorced.

Though born and raised in the US, a young Kamala often visited her maternal grandparents in Chennai's Besant Nagar locality, and had strolled on the Elliots Beach here along with her grandfather P.V. Gopalan, a retired civil servant.

"You can't know who @KamalaHarris is without knowing who our mother was. Missing her terribly, but know she and the ancestors are smiling today," Maya Harris tweeted after her sister was selected.

Shyamala Gopalan's sister Sarala Gopalan and brother G. Balachandran are still in India.

A thrilled Sarala, who got the news early on Wednesday, told a publication that her niece has not forgotten her roots and calls her 'Chithi' - the form of address for the younger sister of one's mother.