Houston, January 10
Bobby Jindal, the first Indian- American governor in the US and a possible contender for the White House in future, began his second term as the chief of Louisiana following a landslide victory.

The 40-year-old Republican easily coasted to a second term on Saturday, winning a landslide election against nine competitors in the open primary.

Jindal, son of Indian immigrant parents from from Punjab, took the oath of office before hundreds of people as he pledged not to rest on the accomplishments of his first four years.

“I Bobby Jindal do solemnly swear that I will support the constitution and laws of the United States and the constitution and laws of this state,” Jindal said as State Supreme Court Justice Catherine “Kitty” Kimball administered the oath yesterday.

He overwhelmed nine competitors in the open primary, where a candidate wins the race outright if he or she receives more than 50 per cent of the vote. With four-fifths of precincts reporting, Jindal had received about two-thirds of the total vote.

His closest competitor, Tara Hollis, a Democrat from north Louisiana, garnered about one-fifth of the total vote. All of the other candidates were in single digits. “I love to boast about the progress the people of Louisiana have made over these past four years, but I won’t and here is why. All of that was yesterday, we cannot stand, we must not rest on our laurels,” said Jindal.

Jindal told a packed hotel ballroom of supporters in Baton Rouge that he will “use every day, every hour of these next four years to make Louisiana the very best that we can be.” — PTI