The people of the Sazida colony in Malekotla village in Sangrur had another reason to celebrate Dussehra with great joy on Sunday. Piyush ‘Bobby’ Jindal, who has his roots in his village, was elected governor of Louisiana. He became the first Indian-origin governor in the Unites states.

When the news broke on different channels, the people started celebrating and distributed sweets in the village. Some 100 years ago, the first immigrants to the US were driven out of the country after Bellingham riots and now the conservative state in US has elected an Indian-American as governor.

On Sunday, Boby Jindal, 36, created history when he won 50% of primary votes in a field of 12 candidates and became the first Indian-American governor of any state in US. Jindal had 53 percent with 625,036 votes with about 92 percent of the vote tallied.

It was enough to win the election outright and now there is no need to go for November 17 runoff of next round of counting. He would take oath as governor of Louisiana in January next year as the youngest current governor in the US as well. He will be the first member of an ethnic minority to become the chief executive of a historic state.

Jindal said after his victory:

My mom and dad came to this country in pursuit of the American dream. And guess what happened. They found the American Dream to be alive and well right here in Louisiana.

According to the report, Jindal’s nearest competitors, Democrat Walter Boasso received 208,690 votes or 18% of total votes; Independent John Georges received 1167,477 votes or 14% of total votes; Democrat Foster Campbell received 151,101 or 13% of total votes. Eight other candidates received rest of the total votes.

Earlier, the Oxford-educated Jindal had failed to register the governor’s race four years back and lost the election to Kathleen Blanco, his nearest competitor. After one year, he won a congressional seat in conservative suburban New Orleans however, the governor’s mansion was always his target.

Now he is set to be shifted at governor’s mansion in January. He said that he would pledge to fight corruption and would make the state free of those feeding at the public trough.

The report said further that the race for the governor’s post was one of the highest-spending election process in Louisiana history. In this election, Jindal had raised $11 million, and Georges raised about $10 million of their personal wealth into his campaign war.

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