A rising star in the Republican Party, Bobby Jindal became the first Indian American to be elected governor in the United States in 2007.
Born in 1971, Bobby Jindal started out in politics while attending Brown University. He worked as an intern for Congressman Jim McCrery. In 1991, Jindal went to Oxford University to study health-care systems.
He later worked for the state of Louisiana. In 2001, Jindal became the assistant secretary for the Department of Health and Human Services for former US President George W Bush. He won his second bid for governor of Louisiana in 2007.
*Piyush “Bobby” Jindal was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to Amar and Raj Jindal, immigrants from Punjab, India, who arrived in the US in 1970.
*While in high school, he played in tennis, started a computer newsletter, a retail candy business and a mail-order software company. Jindal was one of 50 students nationwide admitted to the Program in Liberal Medical Education (PLME) at Brown University, guaranteeing him a place in medical school.
*He applied to and was accepted by both Harvard Medical School and Yale Law School, but studied at New College, Oxford, as a Rhodes Scholar.
*In 1996 Foster appointed Jindal as Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals, an agency that represented about 40 percent of the state budget and employed over 12,000 people.
*Foster called Jindal a genius who has a lot of knowledge of medicine. Jindal was 24 at the time. During his tenure, Louisiana’s Medicaid programme went from bankruptcy with a $400 million deficit into three years of surpluses totaling $220 million.
*A virtual unknown, Jindal sought to win Louisiana’s highest office in 2003 elections. The conservative Catholic politician ran on a pro-life, anti-gun control platform, but he could not win over enough of the state to secure the governorship.
He, however, did not wallow in his defeat. He campaigned and won election to the US House of Representatives the following year.
*Under Jindal’s term, Louisiana nationally rose to third place in child healthcare screenings, with child immunizations rising, and introduced new and expanded services for the elderly and the disabled.
*While in the House, Jindal served on several committees, including the House Committee on Education and the Workforce. He also worked hard to pass legislation to support Louisiana’s recovery after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
*In 2007, Jindal once again ran for governor of Louisiana. This time he won the election and started to tackle ethics- and business-related issues soon after being sworn in as governor, in January 2008.
*Not long after taking office, Jindal helped Louisiana through another natural disaster—Hurricane Gustav. He oversaw the evacuation of roughly 1.9 million people before the storm hit the region.
*His deft handling of this difficult situation earned him widespread praise, which continued when he guided his state through the devastating BP oil spill of 2010.
So what’s next for this 43-year-old Indian origin US politician?
Well are his own words:
For some time now, my wife Supriya and I have been thinking and praying about whether to run for the Presidency of our great nation. I’m pleased to say that we will announce our final decision on June 24th in New Orleans.
– Bobby Jindal
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