Nandan Nilekani, the man who is credited with giving an identity to 600 million Indians, is all set to take a plunge into mainstream politics by contesting from Bengaluru South constituency on a Congress ticket. The head of UIDAI and the co-founder of Infosys is working hard to understand the constituency and the voters in the last few weeks after it was informally agreed that he will be the candidate for the constituency and has the backing of none other than Rahul Gandhi, the vice president and campaign chief of Congress. So, what are his chances? Does he stand a chance of fighting against someone like BJP's Ananth Kumar, who is a five time MP from the same constituency?
Nandan has an impeccable list of personal achievements but will that get him through the maze of electoral politics is a big question on everyone's mind.
Here are some quick positives and negatives about his candidature:
Positives:
- A successful corporate career where he built Infosys along with the other founders and created wealth for lakhs of shareholders as well as for himself.
-In spite of a great career at hand, the fact that he retired from corporate life to come on board of UIDAI and deliver an Identity card to 600 million people in a span of less than a decade is worth noting. In spite of UID being mired in some issues, it is still an audacious and one of the world's largest ID project and is expected to solve some of the problems of identity, direct benefit transfer, subsidy reform and financial inclusion. With UID he showed what a man with great execution skills can do even in a snail's paced bureaucratic setup like ours.
- He has a clean image and considering the mood of electorate after Delhi elections, he can make his clean image as one of the key PR ingredient of his campaign.
- Ananth Kumar's victory margins are on a steady decline from election to election with 53 per cent vote share in 1998 that came down to 48.2 per cents in 2009 and if the relatively new Congress government at the state works in tandem for Nandan, he definitely stands a chance of fight.
Negatives:
- Right now he is a right man in the wrong party. Congress-led UPA is facing a strong anti-incumbency wave and most pre-poll surveys are predicting that Congress will have its worst elections ever in the history.
- Bengaluru South is traditionally a BJP strong hold where the sitting MP has won five times in a row starting from 1996 to 2009.
- There is a Modi factor at play in this constituency too. Nandan is relying his chances much on young urban Bengalurigas who are also appeased by Modi as well as AAP and may not fully swing in any one's way.
- Ananth Kumar has a strong connection with the constituency. He knows each and every corner of the constituency and is a grass root politician who goes door to door to campaign in the entire constituency. Nandan is yet to be seen mingling with people beyond those students of some reputed colleges of the city.
- Last but not the least, in a stratified society like ours, the ability to speak people's language makes a big difference for any politician and Ananth kumar who speaks fluent Kannada scores big when compared to Nandan. Nandan should engage the Kannada space more actively than he is currently doing. There are reports that he has engaged a Kannada tutor to brush up his oratory skills and we'll get to see the result of those classes when Nandan goes for campaigning door to door in the coming days.
Whoever may win, they should work with other MPs from the state to protect the economic and political interests of Karnataka at Delhi. This is what a median voter from Karnataka expects this season.