Ex-Infosys honcho to campaign for Arvind Kejriwal

Bangalore: V. Balakrishnan, the former Infosys honcho and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) contestant from the Bangalore Central Lok Sabha seat, will campaign for the party`s national convener Arvind Kejriwal, who is contesting from Varanasi. "I am definitely going to Varanasi to campaign for Arvind though dates are yet to be finalised," Balakrishnan told IANS Saturday, while unwinding after Thursday polling in 28 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka and a month-long hectic electioneering in this tech hub.

Kejriwal decided to enter the fray after the opposition BJP announced March 16 that its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi would contest from Varanasi. The polling is on May 12. Modi is also contesting from Vadodara Lok Sabha seat in Gujarat, where election is due April 30. "I will also be campaigning for our party in some constituencies where elections are due in the next three weeks," Balakrishnan said. The financial wizard, who joined the fledgling party Jan 1 after quitting the IT bellwether Dec 31, will also meet coordinators in the assembly segments of his constituency to put in place a structure for greater use of IT and to interface with people. "It is important to have robust structure in place to address people`s issues or problems and find effective solutions in a time-bounder manner," Balakrishnan asserted. On second lowest voting (55.70 percent) in his constituency, the AAP nominee said the turnout reflected less use of money power compared to 2009 general elections. "I believe more educated and middle class people have exercised their votes this time. My chance of winning is very high," Balakrishnan claimed. AAP is pitted against outgoing BJP lawmaker P.C. Mohan, Rizwan Arshad of Congress and danseuse Nandini Alva of Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) and 30 other candidates, including independents. Incidentally, Balakrishna`s former boss and Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani contested on Congress ticket from the adjacent high-profile Bangalore South parliamentary seat, where voting was the lowest in the state at 55.69 percent though 10.75 percent higher than 44.74 polled in 2009 elections. Nilekani, however, plans to stay put in the city and thank the people, colleagues and party`s leaders and cadres for their extensive support in his poll campaign.