Billionaire Nandan Nilekani tells Bangalore voters he can't be bought
India's richest candidate for parliament strolls IT capital promising to shake up corrupt system
He is the richest candidate running in India's national election, with a personal fortune of over US$1.2 billion.
He co-founded one of the nation's best-known IT companies, Infosys. At 58, Nandan Nilekani is comfortable sharing a stage with the likes of Microsoft's Bill Gates and Google's Eric Schmidt, and schmoozing at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland.
I am not in politics to make money. I have already made money the honest way
But now he is trudging through the dusty streets of his home town, Bangalore, shaking hands and knocking on doors as he runs for a seat in India's parliament. He represents a new kind of candidate - an urban professional who rose on his own merit, not through the country's corruption-prone political system.
Nilekani's is one of the most keenly watched contests in India's election, which began this month and runs through mid-May. About 30 per cent of India's 814 million voters are urban, an important force at a time when many voters are angry about corruption and the economy.
Bangalore voters head to the polls today.
Nilekani has started campaigning every day at dawn, visiting parks in this southern Indian city, glad-handing sweaty joggers, interrupting Om-chanting yoga practitioners and disrupting soccer and badminton games.
"I am here to work for you," Nilekani says to them. Young men and women stop to stare; some click the mogul's picture. But the adulation quickly gives way to complaints.