Indian American candidates are emerging as a fund raising force for the 2012 U.S. elections, raking in cash from a well established and tight knit community seeking to expand its political influence. While Indian Americans have established themselves in a wide range of professional fields over the last half century yet, has failed to attain the same success in politics.

Ami Bera, a California physician, Raja Krishnamoorthi, a former Illinois deputy state treasurer, and Ricky Gill, a University of California at Berkeley law student, are all among the top fund raisers. Bera raised over $545,000 this year and is one of the top-grossing Democratic candidates in the country, Gill brought in $446,000 during the second quarter and Krishnamoorthi raised $400,000 plus during the same period.

Regardless to the huge amount the Indian Americans managed to rake in, to date just two Indian Americans have been elected to Congress: Dalip Singh Saund, a California Democrat who served in the House from the late 1950s to the early 1960s, and now-Louisiana's Republican governor Bobby Jindal, who served from 2004 to 2007.

Indian Americans had a taste of success in 2010, when South Carolina Republican Nikki Haley became the second Indian American governor in U.S. history; and California Democrat Kamala Harris, who is half Indian, was elected state attorney general. But each of the six Indian Americans, including Pennsylvania Democrat Manan Trivedi and Kansas Democrat Raj Goyle, waging congressional campaigns fell short. New York Democrat Reshma Saujani, the first Indian American woman to run for Congress, lost big in a primary against Carolyn Maloney.