Nandan Nilekani to contest from Bangalore South from Congress party

UIDAI chairman and former CEO of Infosys joined Nandan Nilekani the Congress party on Sunday. The Karnataka Congress party declared on Saturday that Nilekani is going to contest for Bangalore South’s Lok Sabha seat.

G. Parameshwara, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president handed Nilekani the party flag before he filled the membership form at a party function on Sunday.

Nilekani who co-founded Infosys and is known for piloting the Aadhaar programme believes his experience will hold him good in the Lok Sabha elections.He said that he as a co-founder of India’s largest companies (Infosys), he knows how to create jobs, he was part of the ID programme that gave 60 crore people identity and he was also the chairman of Bangalore Agenda Task Force(BATF) where he got into local governance.

Nilekani said that people should vote for him as he is clean and is a local candidate. The 58-year-old entrepreneur will be contesting against BJP’s Ananth Kumar, who has won the Bangalore South seat for five times.

With the election slated for April 17 in Karnataka, the polls are just less than six weeks. The stipulated rule that a candidate should serve for three years in the party has apparently been relaxed for Nilekani, who is also close to the Gandhi family.