Indian American Bobby Jindal elected governor of Louisiana

By IANS

New York : US Republican Bobby Jindal has won the Louisiana governor’s race – making him the first-ever politician of Indian descent to become governor of one of the 50 US states.


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Jindal secured 444,550 votes or 53 percent.

His nearest competitors were: Democrat Walter Boasso with 155,154 votes or 18 percent; Independent John Georges had 120,103 votes or 14 percent; Democrat Foster Campbell with 109,375 or 13 percent. Eight candidates divided the rest.

Jindal was born Piyush Jindal in Baton Rouge to a Hindu Indian family. As a youth, he started calling himself Bobby in an attempt to assimilate with the US society, and as a teenager converted to Roman Catholicism.

He studied biology and political science in college and won a prestigious Rhodes scholarship to study at New College in Oxford, England. Jindal went to work for the prestigious consulting firm McKinsey & Co.

In 1995, the 24-year-old Jindal was appointed head of the Louisiana Department of Health & Hospitals, cementing his reputation as a public policy “wonk”.

He served President George W. Bush as assistant secretary of the US Department Health and Human Services from 2001-03, until his first bid for governor four years ago.

After losing that race, Jindal ran for Congress in 2004, easily winning in a conservative district and cruising to re-election in 2006.

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