Six other statewide elected officials were then sworn in and Lt Governor Mitch Landrieu gave a five-minute speech after which Republican US Congressman Jim McCreary of Louisiana, for whom Jindal had worked as an intern during his college days, introduced the new Governor.

It was McCreary who had introduced Jindal for former Governor Mike Foster, who gave Jindal his first executive job in Louisiana as the head of health and hospitals at age of 24 where he was a policy wonk at McKinsey and Company, fresh after his stint in Oxford University in England as a Rhodes Scholar.

McCreary in his introduction said that "like many of Louisiana's earliest and greatest leaders, Bobby is a first generation native-born American. Bobby parents are here today, having chosen many years ago, Baton Rouge as their new home (Jindal's mother Raj was six months pregnant with him when she came to Baton Rouge to attend graduate school at Louisiana State University).

The lawmaker said that Jindal's parents, Amar and Raj Jindal, "have contributed much to Lousiana since then -- they are fine people and the indelible stamp of their character is easily seen on their son."
Image: US Air Force jets salute the new Louisiana governor.