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Meet Jindal's right hand man in Louisiana
Nial Patel caught the political bug in school and hasn't let go. Today, he takes care of Bobby Jindal's home base.
Indian American Nial Patel, 25, caught the political bug in school and hasn't let go. Today he takes care of Rep. Bobby Jindal's home base.
Patel says he absolutely "loves" public service. He looks after Metairie township in the 1st District of Louisiana for Jindal, making sure the freshman congressman maintains his links with the people who sent him to the House of Representatives.
"I represent Bobby to his constituents in the First District of Louisiana. I act as a liaison between constituents and various federal agencies. I love public service and I cannot think of anything more pleasing than being able to help people better their lives and understanding government," Patel told IANS.
Jindal has at least two Indian Americans in key staff positions. Apart from Nial, there's Sapna Delacourt as legislative director and counsel in his Washington office.
Patel was born in Toronto, Canada, but moved to New Orleans at age 1. His father Ashok Patel, an engineer who has worked for the US space agency NASA and now a businessman, is from Gujarat and his mother Gita is from Kisumu, Kenya.
A graduate of Louisiana State University, Nial studied economics and political science, and later earned a graduate degree in economic public policy.
He began working for Jindal as a volunteer on the gubernatorial campaign.
"I love politics, but was never active until I saw that I could play a role in something I really believed. I did everything from answering phones to organising volunteers to helping research for policy papers and debates. I was pinned down from project to project and was used to help all aspects of the campaign," Patel said.
"A huge undertaking besides the long hours of research for the governor's race was organizing 150 home schoolchildren to volunteer for Bobby's congressional campaign," he recalled. He was a "sort of deputy" to everyone in the campaign.
He has other achievements to his name. He worked for the Louisiana Republican Party as convention coordinator and took the lead in organising a state convention for all republicans in Louisiana.
"It was a huge success and was a preamble to the party's huge victory in November," Patel said.
Before that he was editor of PoliticsLa.com where he reported political news from across the state and was instrumental in building PoliticsLA to three times its readership, he claims. "As editor I hosted receptions and political satire events that brought very varied crowds to discuss the happenings in the state."
He currently sits on the board of the Louisiana Young Republican Federation as vice-president of fundraising.
"I consider myself a Louisiana political operative and hope to help build the Republican Party in the state by true leadership, educating the voters and hard work," said Patel, a claim Jindal takes seriously.
He considers Jindal "an excellent role model" and admires his devotion to public service. "It comes straight from the heart," he said.
