New Delhi: All eyes are on these three Lok Sabha seats in the South. In Bangalore South, Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani of the Congress is taking on BJP's five time MP and former union minister Ananth Kumar. Following former IT czar Nandan Nilekani's candidature; Bangalore South constituency has become a household name.
In neighbouring state of Kerala, Union minister Shashi Tharoor is defending his seat Thiruvananthapuram while in Tamil Nadu, former telecom minister A Raja of 2G scam fame is defending his seat Nilgiris.
While the contest is intense in Bangalore South, both Tharoor and Raja seem to have an edge in their respective seats.
Bangalore South
Bangalore South is a purely cosmopolitan seat. The seat has been with the BJP MP Ananth Kumar since 1996. Before that also Bangalore South mostly favoured non-Congress candidates. The last Congress MP to represent Bangalore South was former Karnataka chief minister R Gundurao who won by a huge margin in 1989. Since 1996, the Congress always fielded a new candidate in every election and lost.
This time, it is hoping to reverse the trend by fielding Nandan Nilekani, who headed the UPA-2's ambitious programme Aadhaar.
Nandan Nilekani is a local Bangalorean. He was born and brought up there. He has been living in the same Bangalore South area since early 1980s. Even though he is new to politics, he is already campaigning like a seasoned politician to beat his rival Ananth Kumar. He has launched a multi-pronged attack on the BJP. He is using his excellent networking skills to reach out to the voters across Bangalore South and is confident of ending Ananth Kumar's control over the seat.
He has turned it into a personal fight between him and Ananth Kumar. He is focusing only on local issues and argues that the people want change. He is carefully avoiding the Narendra Modi vs Rahul Gandhi debate.
On the other hand his rival Ananth Kumar wants to make it a Modi vs Rahul Gandhi battle. He says it is not a local city corporation election to focus on local issues and the country is voting for a new government.
Nilekani counters him saying that Ananth Kumar's track record as an MP is very poor and he is trying to save himself by making it a Modi vs Rahul Gandhi battle.
Local people say that Ananth Kumar is a very shrewd politician and it won't be very easy for Nilekani to beat him. It has now become a clash of two personalities. Will Bangalore South vote for a first timer or a veteran? Wait till the voting day.
Bangalore South will vote with rest of Karnataka on April 17.
Thiruvananthapuram
When Shashi Tharoor contested from Thiruvananthapuram in 2009, he was a novice like Nandan Nilekani. Nobody gave him a chance. Most of the Kerala Congress leaders had also opposed his candidature calling him an 'outsider'. But, Tharoor proved all of them wrong by winning with a good margin. But, his tenure as a Union minister was full of controversies.
First he had to resign as minister of state external affairs due to allegations of his involvement in IPL scam. He later returned as minister of state HRD. Two months ago, his wife Sunanda Pushkar died under mysterious circumstances. It led to a huge furore for sometime. His opponents in Kerala politics are raising it once again during the elections. Tharoor has already complained to the election commission against it. But, what goes in favour of Tharoor is the CPI backed candidate Dr. Bennet Abraham's background. He is relatively unknown and has never been a part of the Communist movement. The local CPI is reportedly unhappy with his nomination.
Shashi Tharoor is a popular MP. After winning the elections in 2009, Tharoor tried to nurture his constituency. He is no longer a stranger or an outsider. He is also accessible to the people.
He feels that he can beat the anti-incumbency and return to Parliament once again. Thiruvananthapuram is voting on April 10 with rest of Kerala.
Nilgiris
The 2G scam made former Telecom minister A Raja one of the most unpopular figures in Indian politics. Nilgiris is a new constituency for Raja. He shifted to Nilgiris in 2009 and won by a big margin. Nilgiris a reserved seat for Scheduled Castes (SCs). It is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful Lok Sabha seats in India. Even though Raja is 'tainted', many of his voters in Nilgiris feel that he was made a scapegoat to save some big people. They claim that Raja has done good work in his seat and very accessible to the people. Raja also claims that he has nurtured his seat in the last 5 years.
The ruling AIADMK has fielded Dr C Gopalakrishnan, who is not a popular leader like Raja. But, chief minister J Jayalalithaa is a popular figure in the Nilgiri hills and she spends a lot of time at her Tea estates in Kodanadu in the Nilgiri mountains. If Jaya magic works, then Raja have may to have eat the humble pie.
Nilgiris votes on April 24 with rest of Tamil Nadu.
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