This Article is From Mar 21, 2014

The battle for Bangalore South

Bangalore: An IT billionaire, a political veteran and a woman who has worked for three decades in the field of child welfare. The voters of Bangalore South certainly cannot complain of lack of variety in their candidates in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

Bangalore South has been a BJP stronghold for years. The party's candidate, sitting MP Ananth Kumar, has represented the seat five times in a row and will certainly be hoping to make it a sixth.

Mr Kumar is no stranger to campaigning in Bangalore South. This time round, his Congress opponent is a newcomer to politics, but he in turn is no stranger to public life - Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani.

Mr Kumar told NDTV he is confident of victory. "It is not going to be easy for Congress party. It is BJP bastion, BJP is winning this constituency six times in a row, and Bangalore South per se is a non-Congress, anti-Congress fort. Our electorate is enlightened. And they want to select a prime ministerial candidate. It is vote for Narendra Modi through Ananth Kumar," he said.

Mr Nilekani was dismissive of the invoking of Mr Modi's name. "A five-term MP has to invoke Modi all the time. If you are an MP from here for five terms, you should be invoking your own track record, no?" he said.

Mr Nilekani has tasted incredible success as an entrepreneur with Infosys before taking over as chief of the Central government's Unique Identity Authority of India (UIDAI) - a job he often mentions as part of his credentials for the post of MP. Will it be an IT man for the IT city?

We spoke to some of the voters in the constituency. One man said he thought that both were equally competent. Another said he was for Mr Kumar as he wanted to see Mr Modi as prime minister.

The impact of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) cannot be discounted in this constituency - and this is a city for which Arvind Kejriwal's party had high expectations. Their candidate, Nina Nayak, is brand new to politics after more than 30 years in various posts in the field of child welfare - and is not frightened of her big name competition. She told NDTV, "I think I have the Aam Aadmi behind me, and I have the people behind me and we are going to make a difference. They represent parties you can't write home about."

Her party colleague, Prithvi Reddy, said, "She represents a woman of substance and I believe every woman in Bangalore South will cast her vote because she represents the aspirations of women. I don't think they (Nandan Nilekani and Ananth Kumar) stand a chance against Nina Nayak."

All candidates sound supremely optimistic ahead of the election. But only one will return triumphant from Bangalore South.
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