New Delhi: Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president Dr G Parameshwar met Infosys co-founder and Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) Chairman Nandan Nilekani in New Delhi on Tuesday. This meeting assumes a lot of significance after the state unit recommended his name as one of its three nominees from the prestigious Bangalore South Lok Sabha seat in the coming general elections. After a 30 minute meeting with billionaire IT czar, Parameshwar said, "We welcome people like Nandan Nilekani. It is a good sign."
He said that the high command in New Delhi would decide the final list of candidates. According to reports Nandan Nilekani has expressed his willingness to take on the sitting BJP MP from Bangalore South Ananthkumar. The BJP's national general secretary and a former union minister Ananthkumar has been representing the constituency since 1996 without a break. He has won from here five times.
Nandan Nilekani, who went to IIT Bombay, co-founded Infosys in 1981. According to Forbes he is one of the top 100 richest persons in India with personal assets worth over Rs 8000 crores.
He became the chairman of UIDAI in 2009 with rank of a Union Cabinet minister. Nilekani is a born Bangalorean. According to sources the Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi are also keen on fielding him to enhance the image of the party.
Bangalore South has 8 assembly seats. The Congress has won 4 seats in the last assembly polls. It is traditionally an anti-Congress seat. The last Congress MP from Bangalore South is the late chief minister of Karnataka R Gundurao, who won in 1989. Before that also it was represented by the Janata party MPs.
It is the most prosperous part of Bangalore with a huge population of educated, affluent voters. The Congress is hoping that it can win it back, if Nandan Nilekani takes on the BJP, this time.
According to sources Nilekani wants the Congress high command to announce his candidature first and he is not commenting on whether he is contesting or not.
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