Following the victory of Republican Donald Trump and his vice presidential candidate JD Vance in the 2024 US presidential elections, there is euphoria at Andhra Pradesh’s Vadluru, the ancestral village of Vance’s wife Usha Chilukuri Vance.
Vadluru is about 3 km from the town Tanuku in West Godavari district, where Usha’s family once lived.
The Vadluru villagers celebrated Usha’s husband’s victory in the US election.
Meanwhile, 96-year-old Vizag-based Professor C Santhamma, a distant relative of 38-year-old Usha, expressed happiness over JD Vance’s triumph in the US polls.
Professor Santhamma told ANI: “Naturally, I feel happy… She belongs to our family and it is the most important thing… She was born somewhere in West Godavari district… My relationship is through my husband… My husband has 5 brothers. The eldest brother has 4 children. Usha is the daughter of one of his sons…”
“My advice is to concentrate on India if possible and see that Indians don’t drift to various other countries. You must protect them. You must help the country to such an extent that their intelligence is retained in India…,” she added.
“The second thing is, that our Sanskrit is lost. Our Sanskrit should be brought back to India… These are two of my advice…,” Santhamma also said.
However, Professor Santhamma and Usha have never met or spoken to each other.
Usha is an accomplished lawyer educated at Yale University.
According to Santhamma, Usha’s parents, C Radhakrishna and Lakshmi, migrated to the US around 1980.
About 30 to 40 Vadluru villagers distributed sweets to celebrate Vance’s victory and Usha’s links to their village, who is expected to become the second lady of the United States.
“We just celebrated Usha’s husband’s victory. We burst crackers and preceded this celebration with prayers for JD Vance’s victory yesterday at the local Sai Baba temple,” P Srinivasa Raju (53), a former village president, told PTI.
Incidentally, the Sai Baba temple in the village was constructed on a plot donated by Usha’s family.