A missed flight, a party with two gunshots fired, and a very, very late night later, it’s understandable that Raj Bhakta arrives at the hotel lobby a little bleary eyed the next morning. Profusely apologetic for being late, and extremely charming, he leads the way to his room booked at a downtown hotel.

He spent the night at the house of a close friend of his father’s, says Bhakta.

“This gentleman and my father came to Philadelphia from India,” he explains. “My father stayed on in Philadelphia, but his friend moved to Toronto. In fact, one of my earliest memories of Toronto is my father dangling me by my foot over Niagara Falls. They used to let you do that back then. That’s just how my father is. I get my nuttiness from him. And you can write that.”

The former Apprentice contestant was in town for a social event with a new twist. Called Déjà vu, the event hopes to bring South Asian celebs for a meet-and-greet with the Toronto junta. The first event seems to have gone off smoothly, despite a few hitches. Although Bhakta arrived at the event unannounced, with a hint of a royal wave, he was soon surrounded by fans, posing for flashing cellphone- and other cameras. And he humoured the fans, answering the exclamations of ‘Raj!’ and questions about his lack of a bow-tie.

A woman outside the plush Two Rosehill club described the affair as, “I have never seen so many women in heat before.”

It’s not an inaccurate picture. After all, Bhakta is possibly the most eligible young South Asian bachelor out there at the moment, especially now that hotelier and playboy-model Vikram Chatwal is betrothed to model Priya Sachdev.

The scion of a successful businessman father Bharat, who ran a car business before turning to the hotel industry, Bhakta may not have aristocratic pedigree, but he certainly has a posh upbringing. The result is a 29-year-old smooth operator, a charmer who could possibly paddle his way out of any sticky situation, with a head for business and passion to be in the news, and a few eccentricities that make him memorable, if not unforgettable.

“Chocolate,” Bhakta asks, giving his hotel room a once over and quickly checking his Palm One Treo. The 150 grams of Cadbury milk chocolate was down to its last two rows.

Excusing himself to a quick shower (he bathroom-sings in French), Bhakta emerges pink-faced, his collar upturned and cuffs unbuttoned. He tries to find appropriate neck-wear to match his blue shirt, green cords and a green-and-orange tartan jacket ensemble. He settles on an orange tie, after discovering he brought no bow-tie with him.

The bow-tie wearing started at his high school. The private school followed the British tie-and-jacket and having three meals a day tradition. Bhakta sought the bow-tie as alternate neck apparel, deeming the ascot, a.k.a. the cravat, as “too much.”

That may seem rich coming from a man whose website www.rajbhakta.com references pinstripe and tweed, uses phrases such as “agents of puffery” (PR folk) and “visual baubles” (photos), but that’s just him, as Bhakta points out.

Check out for instance, his coats of arms. He fashioned it on his Indian and Irish heritage, using his friend’s Latin expertise to come up with the motto: All my might for my country. The coat of arms also reflects Bhakta’s politics. He’s a Republican, and is more than eager to share his opinions on a subject entirely different than asking Donald Trump’s receptionist Robin out on a date. (After being fired by Trump in week nine of the 16-week job interview that makes up the Apprentice series, Bhakta made an unforgettable exit by asking Robin to “pony up” her number.) As much as he loves to explain his temerity to ask Robin or tennis sex symbol Anna Kournikova out (‘I just did what most men dream of doing,’ he says of the episode that saw him lose a bet to the tennis pro), Bhakta also loves to chat about his unabashed loved for America.

“There are many different sorts of patriotism,” he says. “You have the sort of ignorant patriotism … because you are born in the country. And there is another sort of patriotism that is based on a review of places in the world, and you determine that … United States is a great place. Canada has those same attributes of individual liberty, of being able to do your own thing … When you see the unique American experiment, in terms of modern democracy, of people pursuing their God given talents to their financial best interest, I think that’s a wonderful thing.”

Bhakta also says that he was a critic of the war in Iraq.

“America needs to be very careful, not to stumble into an empire, which we are doing,” he says. “Because all empires fall.

“On the one hand, I am very skeptical about foreign invasions. On the other hand, I think that if the Bush administration succeeds in bringing some form of democracy broadly across the Middle East, it will be one of the major accomplishments of this century.

“People don’t like Microsoft, in many ways. Many people don’t like Bill Gates. And people don’t like United States for the same reason. That it’s the big obvious superpower on the planet. So I think we need to be very aware of that. And try and conduct ourselves with some humility, which doesn’t come to the Americans naturally. That having been said, I think it’s time we create the next legitimate counter power, and that will be China. Purely from a tactical standpoint.”

Surprised? Well, you shouldn’t be. Bhakta has had political ambitions for a while now, and hopes to run for elected office some day. For the time being, Bhakta is busy putting together an organization that he’s christened the Coalition for the Advancement of the Republic, a.k.a., C.A.R. One of his many agendas for C.A.R. is to make it into a powerful advocacy group to foster relations between the United States and India.

In the meanwhile, he’s also going to start paying more attention to his automobile business Automovia and real estate development business Vanquish Enterprises. He’s also started the paperwork for a $60 million ski resort in Vail, Colorado. And he’s looking to get a gig as a political commentator. Like Bill O’Reilly, only cooler, he quips.

In his spare time, Bhakta tools around on his Harley Davidson, and works on his two gas-guzzling Cadillac’s – a Fleetwood and a convertible Eldorado.

“Those are a personal project,” he grins.

It’s all in keeping with his old school gent image, considering he compares his sartorial and other influences to those of Winston Churchill. Although the cane disappeared in the Apprentice after Trump remarked a cane’s meant for the infirm, Bhakta maintains that it’s actually proper for a gentleman to carry a cane and use it to defend himself against nefarious miscreants.

“Well, first of all (Trump) thought the cane was stupid, so I thought why piss of the guy I am trying to get a job with,” says Bhakta. “So I thought I would take the cane to a slightly lower profile. Secondarily, I started losing the cane. You know you’re running around, scatter brained on the show. You are running this ways and that ways and this ways. And my cane is from 1910. You don’t want to lose a hundred year old cane.”

Whatever his preferred accessory – from canes to business portfolios to some eye candy – it seems like we haven’t seen the last of Bhakta yet.