A sense of deja vu prevails as a small aircraft descends on a private airport outside New Orleans on Monday evening. A clean-shaved and well-groomed Bobby Jindal alights the craft with his family, amidst wild cheering and banner-waving from supporters, who have waited for more than an hour to felicitate him. He smiles and waves to the crowd, and then launches into a passionate election rhetoric, promising the best for the people of Louisiana. The scene is almost a carbon copy of a moment last November, when Jindal was on the verge of being the new Governor of Louisiana. Then too, like now, he was comfortably in the lead and his supporters believed his win was a bygone conclusion. This time around, Jindal is contesting for the Congress from the 1st Congressional district of Louisiana, which encompasses some areas of suburban New Orleans — a mostly White conservative community that was once the stronghold of the Ku Klux Klan, but is solidly backing Jindal. And recent polls show Jindal to be almost 70 per cent ahead of his six rivals. Last year, with a week to go for the polls, Jindal was almost 10 percentage points ahead of Kathleen Blanco. This time too, Jindal has more money than all of his rivals put together — an estimated $2 million war chest.His campaign office has all the trappings of the past: groups of youngsters huddle on phones, trying to rope in voters with last minute pitches; Indian American supporters often barge in and inquire if volunteers need anything.Around the district, Jindal posters spawn at every nook and corner and schoolkids chorus his name on roundabouts downtown. So what is different this year? For one, Jindal, 34, is now the father of not one, but two children. Secondly, he is not cowed down by his defeat of last year, and in a brief sound byte to The Indian Express, said he was confident of doing this year what he could not finish last year. ‘‘The campaign has gone well.I hope to not only win tomorrow, but show how an election should be won,’’said Jindal.Neil Patel, 24, one of the most ardent supporters of Jindal, has given his unstinting time and commitment to serving Jindal. ‘‘I hope to work for Bobby once her gets elected,’’ says an ambitious Patel, who has worked full-time for Jindal without any compensation. He says almost 150 Indian-American students have volunteered months for Jindal. An example is Jasmine Gorowara, an undergraduate at the American University in Washington, DC, who volunteered for Jindal this past summer from May to August, and has now taken time off from her classes to campaign for him in the final stretch. ‘‘If he is not good enough, then who is?’’ asks a deli owner in the area.
