Washington: Having bagged the endorsement of former US President Bill Clinton, Indian American Democratic Congressional candidate from California, Ami Bera appears to have moved closer to victory.

The independent Center for Politics at the University of Virginia moved his seat (California 7th Congressional District) from a "tossup" to a "Lean Democratic" which means that Bera has now greater chances of winning the seat by defeating the incumbent Dan Lungren of Republican Party.

"If there is one state where Republican House chances appear to be slipping, it's in heavily Democratic California, which is why we've added Representatives Dan Lungren (R, CA-7) and Jeff Denham (R, CA-10) to Representative Brian Bilbray (R, CA-52) in the 'leans Democratic' column, meaning we believe all three incumbents are underdogs in their battles to return to Congress," the Center for Politics said in its report yesterday.

This new ranking comes as a further boost to Bera's campaign, which early this month was endorsed by Clinton and the popular daily newspaper Sacramento Bee from California.

In the third quarter ending September 30, Bera added more than $731,000 to his campaign funds, and dramatically outraising his opponent Dan Lungren by more than $223,000.

Bera, whose parents migrated to the United States from India over 50 years ago, has now successfully outraised Lungren for 12 out of the last 13 quarters and netted almost $2.7 million this cycle.

Along with Bera, a record number of six Indian American candidates are in fray for the US House of Representatives.

The other five are Upendra Chivukula from New Jersey, Ricky Gill and Jack Uppal from California, Manan Trivedi from Pennsylvania and Syed Taj from Michigan.

Gill, the only Republican Indian American in the fray, according to political analysts too appears poised to make an upset victory over the three-time Democratic incumbent Jerry McNerney.

"Insiders on both sides of the aisle agree that Gill has become a serious threat to McNerney. Democrats are scratching their heads in disbelief over the development, while Republicans are simply happy with the situation," political analyst Stuart Rothenberg wrote in the Roll Call newspaper listing it as one of the four possible upset Congressional seats for the November 6 elections.

He raised $2.3 million during the campaign, as against less than $2 million of McNerney.

According to another poll in Michigan, Indian American candidate, Syed Taj, a doctor, performed unexpectedly better considering that he is contesting from a Republican bastion.