Rohini Nilekani rules out contesting in LS polls from Bengaluru South

Philanthropist Rohini Nilekani will not be contesting in the Lok Sabha elections, sources close to her confirmed. 

Rohini, who is the wife of non-executive chairman of Infosys and former chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), was reportedly in the Congress list to contest from the Bengaluru South constituency. Her name, however, did not figure in the list of probable candidates circulated by the Congress party last week with the names of former MLA Priya Krishna and former Home Minister Ramalinga Reddy figuring as the candidates being considered from Bengaluru South constituency. 

This is the same constituency from which sources in the BJP said that the party is looking to field Tejaswini Ananth Kumar, also a philanthropist and the wife of late MP Ananth Kumar. Following his demise in 2018, the BJP appointed Subba Narasimha (Subbanna), a close aide of Ananth Kumar, to handle the activities of the constituency. Subba’s appointment was seen by some as the way for Tejaswini to enter the political arena.

In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Ananth Kumar had defeated Congress candidate Nandan Nilekani by a margin of more than 2 lakh votes. As per a report, Nandan was the richest candidate taking part in the elections with assets worth Rs 7,710 crore in his affidavit filed before the Election Commission.

Tejaswini, who is yet to be confirmed as the candidate from Bengaluru South constituency, raised eyebrows when she appeared in a Mann Ki Baat programme after she was invited by BJP MP Sadananda Gowda. Tejaswini used to run a local newspaper called Namma Ananth Kumar (our Ananth Kumar) as well as the Adamya Chetana Trust which supplied mid-day meals to government schools in Bengaluru, Kalaburgi and Hubballi.