bangalore south

Tejasvi Surya, contesting on a BJP ticket from Bangalore South constituency, is one of the youngest candidates this election. Surya, 28, is a practising lawyer at the Karnataka High Court, and has been associated with the BJP and RSS for long. He is currently the State Secretary of Yuva Morcha, BJP’s youth wing. Surya is a spokesperson for the BJP, and also part of its national social media team. He is also the nephew of Ravi Subramanya, the BJP MLA from Basavanagudi. Surya has co-founded the Centre for Entrepreneurial Excellence, an organisation that runs projects related to education and entrepreneurship.…

Voters have given their verdict. BJP has once again made a clean sweep in Bengaluru, repeating the 2009 Parliamentary election pattern. However, there are some differences this time. We take a look at the numbers: Bangalore South Ananth Kumar won the seat for the sixth time comfortably, with a margin of over 2.2 lakhs (56.9% of total polled votes). Nandan Nilekani got a sizeable number of votes (36.4% of the total polled votes), but it wasn’t enough to propel him to victory. The takeaway is this: The competition was fierce and limited to BJP and Congress, with very few votes…

Planned vs Actual Spending of MPLAD funds by sitting MPs You have seen the MPLAD spend data for all three MPs of Bangalore. A closer look at the MPLAD fund spending also reveals some interesting patterns, some of which are presented below. Borewells and borewells During the time that he was an MP, Ananth Kumar spent more than Rs. 4 crores on 106 borewells. P.C. Mohan used Rs. 3.35 crores of his MPLAD funds to sink 67 borewells. Not far behind, we have Chandre Gowda who spent Rs. 1.34 crores on 30 odd borewells. The cost of sinking borewells documented…

Nina Naik talking to people during campaign. Pic: Nikita Malusare There were no drum beats, there was no hailing of party slogans, there was no huge backing of crowd to attract the attention. The Aam Aadmi Party caps did the trick. Along with a few dedicated volunteers, Nina P Nayak, Bangalore South AAP Candidate, was seen campaigning on the streets of Gandhi Bazar. At 60 years, Nina P Nayak, adorned in dark blue sari with think gold border, a purse on her right shoulder and the Aam Aadmi Party’s trademark cap on her head, randomly spoke to people as she…

As always, Bangalore South constituency is garnering much curiosity because of the interesting candidates contesting the elections. While the constituency hosts the richest candidate in India, it also has the sitting Member of Parliament who claims to be poorer than his wife. It also has the lone woman candidate for entire Bangalore. The constituency started hitting national headlines when the bigwigs like IT czar and back bone of Aadhaar scheme Nandan Nilekani and five-time MP Ananth Kumar were pitted against each other. And never to forget the dark horse in this fray, child rights activist Nina P Nayak. All the…

Pic courtesy: nandannilekani.in The quintessential Bangalorean. Born in Bangalore, did part of his schooling in Bangalore, was a part of Bangalore’s pride - Infosys. He was in charge of the Bangalore Agenda Task Force (BATF) and he quit as CEO of Infosys to be a part of a larger national need, the Chairman of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). He was the head of TAGUP (Technology Advisory Group for Unique Projects) for five large financial sector projects. No prizes for guessing — yes, we are talking about Indian National Congress candidate from Bangalore South, Nandan Nilekani. His foray into…

When it appears that everybody has lost hopes with the Indian National Congress, Bengaluru’s own billionaire Nandan Nilekani decided to partner with the party. With the aim of becoming the champion for Bengaluru, the man behind the multi-crore Aadhaar project, gave an exclusive interview to Citizen Matters at his campaign office in Jayanagar on March 20th 2013. This was just a day before he declared his family assets — Rs 7,700 crore.   Nilekani shared his thoughts on governance, why he chose to join Congress, and what he can do as an MP for Bengaluru, which is run by MLAs…

It was a rare scene on the streets of J P Nagar, where the educated, young, middle and upper class citizens took to the streets batting for a politician. Yes - a politician officially this day onwards - as Nandan Nilekani was inducted to Congress officially on March 9. Dressed in white T-shirt and holding banners that said ‘We are together with Nandan,’ many of Nandan Nilekani’s colleagues, software engineers, youth, men and women from various walks of life walked from Lalbagh East gate to Hemachandra Sagar Memorial Hall near Ashok Pillar in Jayanagar 1st Block. This was a “walk…

Personal Info | Assets & Liabilities | Positions Held | Performance | Local Issues | MPLAD Funds | Controversy Count   Ananth Kumar is a five-time Lok Sabha MP who represents the Bangalore South constituency. The constituency comprises of Govindraj Nagar, Vijay Nagar, Chickpet, Padmanabha Nagar, Bommanahalli, Basavanagudi, BTM Layout and Jayanagar assembly constituencies. In the 2009 Lok Sabha election, Kumar defeated Krishna Byregowda (INC), a sitting MLA for Byatarayanapura, by a margin of over 37,000 votes. In the past, when the NDA regime was in power, Kumar was a Union Cabinet Minister serving multiple ministries including Civil Aviation, Urban…