Indian American Jindal Elected Governor of Louisiana Second Time

New Orleans: Indian American and Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal won re-election on Saturday. Jindal is seen as the rising star in the Republican party.

“You’ve chosen to give me another four years as your governor. I will use every day, every hour of these next four years to make Louisiana the best it can be” he told the people.

With more than 99% of precincts reporting, Jindal carried 66% of the votes, with his nearest challenger Tara Hollis, a school teacher and Democratic candidate just carrying 18%.

Jindal is now seen as a potential contender for the Vice President’s post. Bobby Jindal has a brilliant resume. He has graduated in three years from Brown in 1991. He has double majored in biology and public policy. He has turned down acceptance at Harvard Medical School and Yale Law School, to take Rhodes Scholarship at New College, Oxford.

At the age of 24, he was appointed Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals by the governor Mike Foster. He performed a miracle there, bringing the Louisiana’s Medicaid program from $400 million deficit to a $220 million surplus. At 26, he was appointed to serve as the Executive Director of the National Bipartisan Commission on the Future of Medicare, the Clinton-era group that produced the most credible Medicare reform plan known as Breaux-Thomas Plan. At 29, President Bush appointed him as Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation at the US Department of Health and Human Services. Less than two years later, Bobby Jindal moved back to Louisiana to run for governor against Kathleen Blanco. Though he lost that 2003 election, Blanco’s disastrous performance during the Hurricane Katrina crisis gave him the window to try again. He won in 2007.

Sources: Reuters and Forbes