Quote of the day: Fighting elections more exciting than Infosys job, says AAP's Bala

In poll fray on AAP ticket, formerInfosys director V Balakrishnan, once in charge of managingover Rs 15,000 crore of Infosys cash, finds fighting electionsmore exciting than his job at the IT giant.

Bala, as the former finance head of Infosys is commonlyknown as, is fighting his first election from the BangaloreCentral constituency here for Lok Sabha polls. Besides,Nilekani, a co-founder and former CEO of Infosys, is also inthe poll fray from Bangalore South seat on Congress ticket.

Bala is fighting against BJP’s sitting MP P C Mohan andCongress’ youth wing chief Rizwan Arshad while Nilekani ispitted against BJP’s sitting MP Ananth Kumar and Aam AadmiParty’s Nina Nayak, among others.

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“While my full support is with the AAP candidate fromBangalore South, Nandan will also have my best wishes as aformer colleague,” said soft-spoken Bala, who quit Infosys inDecember last.

Confident of winning his debut election, Bala said he wasmeeting voters everyday through outreach programmes.

“My core team of 15 members are working hard. I amequally focussing on IT sector voters, the poor and the wellto-do electors. It’s a 24-hour job and more exciting thanworking in Infosys,” Bala told PTI.

Bala said there is also a lot of mutual respect betweenhim and Nilekani.

Born in a traditional middle class family in the quainttown of Vellore in Tamil Nadu, 49-year old Bala has madeBangalore his home for nearly 30 years. He had first come hereto do his CA (Chartered Accountancy) with just “Rs 10 in hispocket” but now has Rs 190 crore in declared assets largelybecause of his Infosys background.

“This city has given me a great career and a superb life.I was disenchanted with politics till Arvind (Kejriwal) provedthat honest politics works. Corruption is a hidden tax that iseating values that are Indian. There is an urgent need tocreate an ecosystem that nurtures honest enterprises. Peopleknow it and AAP will deliver this,” Bala said.

From the boring ‘beep’ callertune as a corporateexecutive, Bala now sports a customised tune that promotes hisparty AAP while seeking votes.On his rival candidates from BJP and Congress, Bala saidthere is “nothing formidable” about them and the constituencywas suffering from civic problems, rampant corruption andrising economic divide even though both principal parties haveconsiderable presence in assembly seats.

Carved out of Bangalore North and South Lok Sabha seatsin the 2009 polls, the Bangalore Central constituency haseight assembly segments with a mixture of upper and middleclass voters.

In his war room, Bala is supported by techies who havequit jobs or taken a break and AAP volunteers who lack thewherewithal of major parties but are braving the scorching sunand first-timer’s issues of a fledgling entity.

“My house is in Rajajinagar. If you look around here andelsewhere, you will see people’s realization that AAP is thealternative to politicians promoting crony capitalism.The current political system is based on money power,muscle strength and caste equations. Only voters can changethis,” said Bala, who unlike many others is contesting from anarea where he resides with wife Chitra and daughters Snehaand Shwetha.

PTI