If three instances make a trend, I'm waiting for the third Indian-American politician who converts to Christianity so that he can run for electoral office.
Bobby Jindal, born a Hindu ("Piyush Jindal"), converted to Catholicism on his way to being elected governor of Louisiana.
Nikki Haley, born a Sikh ("Nikki Randhawa"), became a Methodist enroute to becoming a State legislator in South Carolina and running for the Republican nomination for governor. The Christianity conversion doesn't seem to have helped her much though -- a couple of political operatives have emerged out of the woodwork claiming to have had extramarital affairs with her ... and now, her opponent's strategy seems to be to brand her a faithless (in the other sense) woman.
The really sad thing is that these are not the first American politicians of Indian descent. That would be Dalip Singh Saund (who didn't change his name or change his religion). He immigrated to the United States in the 1920s and campaigned to let Asian Indians become American citizens (something limited to just people of European descent at the time). It took till 1949 before the law was finally changed and he could become an American citizen. Six years later, he was a Congressman representing a California district; he went on to be re-elected twice.
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