Sant Singh Chatwal, the New York hotelier and a long-time friend of the Clintons, launched 'Indian- Americans for Hillary 2008' on Thursday. He will hold a fundraiser in June and later he plans to bring over Bollywood stars like Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai to draw crowds and help Hillary Clinton’s bid for the White House.

A Hillary Clinton supporter, Sant Singh Chatwal told CNBC-TV18, "Most probably, in the middle of August or third week of August, we want a Bollywood show, where we’ll have 22,000 Indians in the Nassau Coliseum. So, we can show that Bollywood stars also love Indian-Americans and Indian-Americans want to join this programme, so they can really participate, enjoy and still help Hillary Clinton."

But the Clintonistas have competition. As Chatwal was hosting his event near Times Square, the New York chapter of South Asians for Obama was launched in downtown Manhattan at a fundraising mixer. This group may not have had the veteran clout of the Clinton camp, but it had youthful energy and a plan.

South Asians for Obama, Udai Tambar says, "We’re setting out a modest goal of doing ‘One Lakh for Barack’. And that’s trying to get 100,000 South Asians to give money to or get involved in this Obama campaign."

Hillary’s supporters don’t think Obama will get far with Indian-Americans because as Joseph Crowley, Democratic Congressman explains, "She has a demonstrated commitment not only to Indo-Americans but to the relationship between the United States and India. Se has a record as a Senator and as a First Lady, that I don’t think Senator Obama can even come close to comparing with."

The race between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama is already shaping up to be a fierce contest across America, and could split the Indian-American community as well. So. will it be Hillary’s experience or Obama’s energy? Well, this might be a tough call to make because Indian-Americans seem to find qualities to support in the major candidates, on either side of the Democratic divide.

US Congressman Joseph Crowley, a New York City Democrat, is a co-sponsor of a Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill introduced in the House of Representatives last month. The legislation also seeks to increase the quota for H1B visas from 65,000, which ran out just a day after they opened this year. So, is it time to increase the quota or abolish the ceiling altogether as demanded by many IT sector giants?

Democrat representative, New York, Joseph Crowley says, "In the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill introduced in the House two-and-a-half weeks ago, the issue of increasing the quota of H1Bs are addressed in that bill." He also says, "This has got a lot of support in the IT industry, it’s not just about taking jobs from Americans, it’s about filling jobs, Americans can’t fill right now."

But there’s a perception, justified or not, that Democrats are on the whole more opposed to H1Bs and Republicans are more sympathetic. So, how true is that? He says, "No, support for H1Bs is across the board and so is opposition - it’s important to know Republicans controlled the House, Senate and White House during the last Congress, when they reduced the number of H1Bs - the new bill under the Democrats will increase the quota."

He feels that this is an issue that should be sorted out in  2007, as 2008 being a presidential election year, will be an explosive time to deal with this issue.

The battle between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama to secure the nomination of the Democratic Party for the 2008 US presidential elections is heating up. Their fund-raising totals for the first quarter of 2007 were close. As the money game becomes more significant, both camps are taking the prosperous Indian-American community seriously. But as two events on Thursday proved, the community is deeply divided over which candidate to support.

Indira Kannan & Anirudh Bhattacharyya