Jindal, a Republican, took office Monday, putting a new public face on Louisiana politics, often stereotyped as a haven for backslapping good 'ol boys who hold office for decades.
The 36-year-old son of Indian immigrants, Jindal is the nation's first elected Indian-American governor and Louisiana's first nonwhite governor since Reconstruction. He is the nation's youngest sitting governor, and many of his top administrators are new to the halls of the Louisiana Capitol.
"We will come to this Capitol to make a clean break with the past," the new governor told the audience gathered to watch him take his oath of office.
He succeeds Democrat Kathleen Blanco, who had defeated him four years earlier but whose image was battered by the state's response to the hurricanes. She did not seek re-election.
A conservative who has held a series of high-profile positions since heading the state health department at age 24, Jindal won 54 percent of the vote in October's primary election in a field of a dozen candidates.
While he has focused on reputation and ethics reform, Jindal inherits an array of problems that have dogged his predecessors. Louisiana is among the nation's poorest and most unhealthy states, its students perform below average on national tests, and its population is dwindling.
Worsening the state's history of problems, the pace of hurricane rebuilding has been sluggish, with thousands of homes left abandoned, residents displaced and basic government services destroyed.
Jindal described the storms as an opportunity to rebuild a better state.
"For reasons beyond our earthly comprehension, this opportunity, this mandate, has been placed on our generation. We must rise to this challenge," he said. "Our goal is a new Louisiana where success is shared by all Louisianians."
The new governor inherits a healthy state treasury, including a more than $1 billion state surplus, rather than the gaping budget holes left to many of Louisiana's past governors.
Blanco attended the inaugural ceremonies with three other former Louisiana governors. The state's only other living ex-governor is Edwin Edwards, who could not attend because he is serving a federal prison sentence on corruption charges.
While Jindal thanked the former governors for their service, he tried to separate himself from the politics of the past and repeated his campaign theme that the state's problems were rooted in incompetent and corrupt leadership.
"In our past, too many politicians looked out for themselves. Too many arms of state and local government did not get results. And the world took note," the new governor said.
The inauguration ceremony began with music and a 19-cannon salute and ended with a flyover from four F-15s and the singing of "God Bless America." The festivities wrapped up with the traditional inaugural ball.
Barry Erwin, head of the nonpartisan Council for a Better Louisiana, said though Jindal's speech lacked specifics, it gave people a sense of encouragement and optimism about the state's future.
"It's really passing the torch to a whole group of new people," Erwin said. "I think there's a sense this is a real opportunity and not a rhetorical one."
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Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal speaks to the crowd during the Inaugural Ball. (AP)
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