‘People are fatigued with Bangalore South MP’

Congress candidate for Bangalore South Nandan Nilekani waves to the media in Bangalore on Friday.

Congress candidate for the Bangalore South constituency Nandan Nilekani on Friday said people of the city were fatigued with the five-time BJP MP, Ananth Kumar, and the time was ripe for a change so as to improve the city’s governance and infrastructure.

At the Meet the Press programme organised by the Press Club of Bangalore here, Mr. Nilekani, Infosys co-founder, said, “I’m confident that I will be an ambassador for Bangalore. I will work with all the MLAs, the Chief Minister and the Congress president to make sure that Bangalore gets the best deal.”

Political experience

He said he was experienced in public sector, private sector and urban governance. Mr. Nilekani, who resigned as chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India on Thursday, said he gained some political experience too while working for Aadhaar, as he had the task of convincing Chief Ministers belonging to various political parties to implement the project.

“I know every detail of how a city functions. So the fact that I have diverse experience… I’m a clean and local candidate. Therefore people should vote for me,” he said. People were fatigued with the incumbent “absentee” MP and time had come to vote for a change, he said.

“I was the chairman of BATF (Bangalore Agenda Task Force) where I got an opportunity to go into the nitty-gritty of local governance....” Mr. Nilekani said.

The Congress candidate, who graduated from IIT Bombay, said he had no personal agenda. He would continue in politics even after the elections. “Politics is a great leverage for change. The city needs a dynamic, clean and committed MP,” he said.

Mr. Nilekani, who was in Infosys for three decades, said India needed leaders who could solve problems and not agitators such as the Aam Aadmi Party members. “My job is not to provide bites to TV channels every two minutes on daily developments.”

Reform minded

The country needed reform-minded people to bring better governance and boost the economic growth. India required a liberal and inclusive policy for generating jobs. “If we do not meet the aspirations of the youth who constitute more than 50 per cent of the population, the country will experience a backlash,” he said.

He expressed confidence of winning the election.