Lake County Gazette

Seeding a Lake County straw poll early in the primary campaign with a busload of elderly Indian voters has come back to bite gubernatorial primary candidate Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin.

Irvin, whose poll number have been sliding rapidly over the past several weeks, denied promising Nimish Jani a seat in an Irvin cabinet.

“Nimish Jani. Did you promise him a place on your cabinet to bus in Indian senior citizens from Chicago for a straw poll?” a reporter asked.

Irvin did not deny that his campaign and Jani’s worked together but said he did not offer him a cabinet seat.

“Absolutely not, that's conspiracy theories. Conspiracy theories that my opponents will say because they'll say anything to try to disparage me and pull our campaign down, because they know we have the message that people want to hear, that we are the ones that can reduce crime in the state because it's out of control under J.B. Pritzker,” Irvin said.

“If elected, is he going to serve on your cabinet? if you're elected is Nimish Jani going to serve on your cabinet?” the reporter asked.

“No. Again, that's against conspiracy theories,” Irvin said.

Jani did not immediately return a call for comment from Lake County Gazette on the matter.

Jani was outed as the culprit behind the straw poll after a suspicious number of Indian-American senior citizens showed up on a bus and were helped into the Lake County straw poll with pre-filled ballots.

Attorney General candidate Tom DeVore, who successfully represented a class of parents in overturning masking protocols in public schools, first pointed out the Jani connection.

“Also, word on the street is Nimish Jani, who is the committee person from the 8th district of the Illinois Republican Party, and who is also Indian, may have orchestrated getting the Indian Senior citizens lined up, in exchange for Mr. Jani being set to receive an appointment into Mr. Irvin’s cabinet if he wins," DeVore posted on Facebook.

"I have no direct knowledge if this is true but Mr. Jani is an Indian man from Cook County who is an establishment Republican, the Senior citizens are Indian and also from Cook county, and these good people really had no idea why they were there and what was going on.  It certainly seems plausible does it not?"

Jani is a former trustee for the Schaumburg School District.

Jani commemorated the end of his political career in May 2021 by opening the Verandah Retirement Community, which specialized in providing aged care to Indian older persons, after he was voted out of office.

“On April 25 a large crowd of Indian leadership of the Chicagoland area and many elected officials gathered at Verandah Retirement Community in Hanover Park, Illinois to honor the legacy of Nimish Jani 8 years of public service as an elected official.  Special Thanks to Dr. Anuja Gupta for hosting the event,” said in a Facebook post at the time.

Jani finished last in the 2021 election despite being a two-term incumbent.