Narender G. Reddy, right, with President George Bush at a fundraiser in January. (Photo: Courtesy, Narender G. Reddy)

Narender G. Reddy, a real-estate broker in Georgia, was selected by the state Republican Party as a delegate to the national party convention scheduled for August-end in New York City.

The Osmania University, Hyderabad, law graduate, who went on to do his Masters in Business Administration from the University of Evansville, Indiana, was drawn to Republican politics by President Ronald Reagan’s charisma, Reddy told News India-Times.

“I came to understand that the Republicans were closer to Indian values –– education, religion, family. So I decided when I become financially stable, I would become active,” he said. And sure enough, since 1991 Reddy has held several positions and is designated a ‘Pioneer,’ having raised more than $200,000 for the Party in one year, of which more than $100,000 was for the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign.

This year when President Bush was scheduled to visit Georgia, “The Party asked me if I wanted to co-host the fundraiser,” which meant Reddy had to raise a minimum of $20,000. He raised $40,000 before the deadline. The Party then suggested that if he raised $60,000, he could be recognized as State Vice Chair of the fundraiser.

He did that and was designated Vice Chair for the event with face time with the president “who pronounced my name like an Indian, which means he worked on it. He signed my daughters’ picture and he seemed a real down-to-earth guy,” Reddy told News India-Times.

He was later appointed State Vice Chair by Governor Sonny Perdue and U.S. Senator Saxby Chambliss, who are co-chairmen of the Georgia Bush-Cheney campaign committee. At the State party convention on May 14-15, Reddy spoke of his background and about Indian Americans, noting: “They are everywhere... over 2 million in this country... with about 60,000 of them living here in Georgia.”

Reddy said Indian Americans made up 10 percent of American physicians, owned 35 percent of the hotels in this country, and they created jobs for others.

On the second day of the State Convention, Reddy was elected as one of the delegates to represent Georgia at the New York national convention.

An entrepreneur himself, he and four other Indian-American partners ventured into banking in 1995, apart from real-estate ventures. The ‘Quantum National Bank’ at Suwanee, Georgia, was the “first Indian-American owned bank”d in the South East U.S., Reddy said.

Among several other organizations, he served as president of Indian-American Cultural Association, Atlanta; Telugu Association of Metro Atlanta; and Indian American Forum for Political Education, Georgia Chapter. He is a founding member of Indian Professionals Network, Georgia Indian American Chamber of Commerce, and American Telugu Association.

In 2003, he founded Georgia Indian American Republican Council. Last year after Perdue got elected as the governor of Georgia, he appointed Reddy to the board of Georgia Regional Transportation Authority (GRTA) in September 2003 for a five-year term.