Indian-American gubernatorial hopeful in Connecticut Dita Bhargava, nixes talk about abandoning run

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Indian-American Mudita ‘Dita’ Bharagava of Greenwich, Connecticut, who announced her intention to run for governor of the state back in October, is facing some headwinds from her own Democratic colleagues, according to a news report.

Another Indian-American, state legislator Prasad Srinivasan, a Republican, is already registered to run for the Aug. 14 primaries.

Incumbent Gov. Dan Malloy, a Democrat, announced last April that he would not seek a third term. That has led to a slew of Democratic and Republican candidates rushing to fill the gap. At least 8 Democrats and 14 Republicans have filed their paperwork. The deadline for filing is June 12, and Bhargava has yet to file her’s.

The New Haven Register in its online edition indicated there was talk among rival Democrats that Bhargava should run for some other office. The report did not identify anyone by name, saying only that, “State treasurer is one that the former hedge fund portfolio manager’s name has been linked to by some rival Democrats.”

Bhargava responded that all her life she had been used to people pigeonholing her. I’m used to people telling me I don’t belong somewhere,” the nhregister.com report quoted Bhargava saying.

Bhargava told the paper she had faced sexual harassment in the workplace during her life.

“Yeah, absolutely. It was the 1990s. At that time, you either took it and continued to work hard toward your goals or you left. Leaving was not a choice for me,” said the potential gubernatorial candidate who has worked at Royal Bank of Scotland in New York, been a Wall Street trader as well as a portfolio manager at Bear Stearns, Citadel Investment Group, Citigroup, Credit Suisse and Dillon Read Capital Management.

Bhargava told nhregister.com “she hasn’t ruled out anything, including switching her exploratory committee to a candidate committee for governor,” the news outlet said in a Feb. 12 report.

The Democratic gubernatorial hopeful said at the time of her initial announcement that she was a “different kind” of Democrat because she was not a politician and is pro-business. In later interviews she has fleshed out her ideas about public-private partnership for the economic development of the state.