Bobby Jindal unveils US presidential bid, becoming first Indian-American candidate

Pegging himself as a rebellious outsider Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal has announced he is running for president, becoming the 13th Republican to launch a 2016 campaign for the White House.

Jindal is the first American of Indian descent to make a major presidential bid and he joins a packed field of Republican hopefuls, several of whom have higher profiles than him.

“My name is Bobby Jindal,” he told a crowd of supporters near New Orleans on Wednesday. ”I am governor of the great state of Louisiana and running for president of the greatest country in the world.”

Jindal, 44, has been an intense critic of President Barack Obama’s strategy for thwarting and defeating extremists including the Islamic State group.

He has cut state spending by 26 percent and slashed more than 30,000 state jobs. He opposes same-sex marriage and a national education standard known as Common Core, and advocates for the repeal of Obama’s signature health care reform law.

Jindal has an encyclopedic command of issues, a weapon he began wielding on stage when he described himself as “the only candidate who’s written a replacement plan” for Obamacare, despite several Republican candidates vowing to repeal it.