Wife of first Muslim US Senator has roots in Karnataka's Bhatkal
Psychiatrist Dr Sarah Jukaku's family traces its heritage to the coastal town of Bhatkal in Uttara Kannada.
Dr Sarah Jukaku, the wife of Democrat Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed, has family roots in Bhatkal, a coastal town in Karnataka, according to reports from The Hindu and Mint.
El-Sayed, 42, made history by defeating Republican Mike Rogers in the Michigan US Senate seat contest during the November 3, 2026, midterm elections.
Dr Jukaku is a psychiatrist based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She studied sociology and Near Eastern studies at the University of Michigan, earned a master's degree from the University of Oxford, and graduated from Columbia University's Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons in 2015.
Her grandfather, Jukaku Shamsuddin, was a lawyer from Bhatkal who served as the Deputy Finance Minister in the erstwhile Mysore State government under Chief Minister B.D. Jatti in the late 1950s and early 1960s. He also served as the Deputy Minister for Electricity in the government led by Chief Minister S.
Nijalingappa.
Dr Jukaku's father, Dr Jukaku Tayeb, grew up in Bhatkal and graduated from Bangalore Medical College in 1976 before moving to the US in the 1980s. He established a career as a nephrologist in Michigan.
The couple, who married in 2006 after meeting at the University of Michigan, has two daughters, Emmalee and Serene.
