In what was expected to be a close finish in Bangalore South Lok Sabha constituency, incumbent MP and BJP candidate Ananth Kumar comfortably romped home to his sixth consecutive victory, defeating Nandan Nilekani of the Congress by a margin of over two lakh votes.
The constituency had assumed a “high profile” status after the Infosys co-founder Mr. Nilekani entered the fray after resigning from the post of the Chairman of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI).
Mr. Nilekani with assets worth Rs. 7,710 crore was the richest candidate in the fray this Lok Sabha elections.
While Mr. Ananth Kumar, who registered his first win in 1996, polled 6, 33,816 votes, the political greenhorn polled 4,05,224 votes to come a distant second in a fray that had 23 candidates. A total of 7,400 voters exercised NOTA option.
The BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi , and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi addressed rallies in the constituency dominated by Vokkaligas and Brahmins.
Bangalore South has a large number of IT employees and Mr. Nilekani believed that they would vote in his favour.
“I am overwhelmed by the victory with such a huge margin. I expected to win comfortably, but this is a historic victory,” Mr. Ananth Kumar said, attributing his victory to a combination of “Narendra Modi wave” and his own goodwill.
In 2009, Mr. Kumar had defeated Congress candidate Krishna Byregowda, the current Agriculture Minister, by a margin of 37,612 votes.
Meanwhile, congratulating his rival over the victory, Mr. Nilekani told presspersons: “I am disappointed, but will continue to be in politics.”
