By IANS
New York : Republican Bobby Jindal has been elected the Louisiana governor after beating 11 rivals, to be the first politician of South Asian origin and the country’s youngest to become the governor of any American state.
Jindal, 36, the son of Indian immigrants from Maler Kotla, a small town in Sangrur district of Punjab, bagged 444,550 votes or 53 percent from Saturday’s election. It was enough to avoid a Nov 17 runoff.
The Oxford-educated dashing politician will be America’s youngest governor when he takes charge in January 2008. No one has won a governor primary outright until now in Louisiana.
“My mom and dad came to this country in pursuit of the American dream,” a visibly pleased Jindal told his cheering supporters. “And guess what happened. They found the dream to be alive and well right here in Louisiana.”
“Let’s give our homeland, the great state of Louisiana, a fresh start,” he added, with his wife Supriya Jolly standing by his side, carrying the youngest of their three children. “The American dream is alive and kicking!”
Those who lost to him included Democrat Walter Boasso with 155,154 votes or 18 percent, independent John Georges (120,103 votes, 14 percent) and Democrat Foster Campbell (109,375 votes, 13 percent). Eight candidates accounted for the rest of the votes.
After the results came out, Georges declared: “I am asking all our supporters to get behind our new governor.”
The victory also led to celebrations in his parents’ ancestral village in faraway Punjab where Gulshan Jindal, a cousin, said: “We are really proud that Bobby has won the governor’s race. He has made us all happy and proud.”
Added another relative: “It is a big day for the entire family!”
Jindal raised $11 million for his campaign but he was up against two multimillionaires – Georges and Boasso. Both spent lavishly to prevent Jindal’s victory.
Jindal, elected to the US House of Representatives in November 2004 from Louisiana, is also the only second Indian-American Congressman. The first was Dilip Singh Saund (1957-1963).
The victory is significant because Louisiana is not home to a large Indian-American population unlike some other major states. And yet Jindal won, banking on his reputation as one who fixed up the state’s healthcare system and as a fighter against corruption. He was always the frontrunner in the race to be the governor.
Jindal had narrowly lost the governor’s election four years ago to Governor Kathleen Blanco. Blanco opted not to run for re-election after she was widely blamed for the state’s slow response to hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005.
Born June 10, 1971 in Baton Rouge in Louisiana, Piyush Jindal started calling himself Bobby as a youngster in a bid to assimilate in the American society, and soon converted from Hinduism to Christianity.
A graduate from Brown University, Rhode Island, Jindal was appointed secretary of Louisiana department of health and hospitals when he just 24 years of age. He used the post to fix the health care system in the state.
From 1998 to 1999, he was executive director of the national bipartisan commission on the future of medical care.
He majored in biology and political science 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.
President George W. Bush appointed him the assistant secretary for planning and evaluation in the US Department of Health and Human Services in 2001.
Jindal and Supriya Jolly married in 1997.
More and more Indian Americans are getting more politically empowered. Nine Indian Americans won last year’s elections to US Congress.
According to US census, the Indian American population grew from 16.7 million in 2000 to 23.1 million in 2005. The community boasts of the highest educational qualifications in the US.
The education levels have enabled Indian Americans to become a productive segment, with 72.3 percent being a part of the US work force. Of this, nearly 60 percent are employed in managerial and professional specialties.