Louisiana Guv Bobby Jindal files for re-election

Piyush 'Bobby' Jindal, the first Indian-American ever to be elected as the governor of an American state, filed his re-election papers, with analysts saying he is unlikely to face any major challenge and seems assured of a second term as Louisiana's chief executive.

"I'm honored to qualify to run for re-election to the office of governor. I am pleased and honored the people have entrusted me to be their governor these past three and a half years. I'm officially asking them today to elect me to a second term," Jindal told newsmen after fling his papers in Baton Rouge.

Born of Indian-American Amar and Raj Jindal, who migrated from Punjab, Bobby Jindal was elected as the Louisiana Governor in 2007 in a four-way race by garnering 54.2 per cent of the total votes.

At the age of 36, he had become the youngest serving governor in the US -- a position which has now been overtaken by his Republican party mate Nikki Haley, who this year was sworn in as the governor of South Carolina. Haley is seven months younger than Jindal.

"I'm asking the people of Louisiana to allow me to serve them for a second term so that we can continue to make progress, continue to give our children more options for a better education, continue to create more jobs for our people, and continue to force government to do more with less," Jindal said.

"Our state's been through a lot. We've been through a number of hurricanes -- you look at Gustav and Ike and even before that, Katrina and Rita. We've been through an oil spill, we've been through the flood, been through the recent drought, and now most recently tropical storm Lee and the fires," Jindal said.

He does not have a big opponent thus far. His three opponents so far are Lenny Bollingham of Baton Rouge, Ron Caesar of Opelousas and Bob Lang of Natchitoches -- all of who are without party affiliations.

"I'm going to run on my record. I'm going to run on my plans for the next four years. Anybody that wants to run, we're more than happy. More than happy to take our case directly to the voters," the Indian-American said.

Financially, Jindal is quite strong with roughly USD 9 million in his re-election fund.

"The reality is, last time I ran, there were about a dozen candidates. I suspect there will be a number of candidates this time as well. We're going to take every one of those candidates seriously," he added.