AAP fields ex-Infosys honcho in Bangalore

The AAP Monday announced that former Infosys director V. Balakrishnan will be its candidate in the Bangalore Central Lok Sabha constituency.

Balakrishnan joined the AAP Jan 1 after resigning from the IT bellwether Dec 31.

Balakrishnan is a founder-member and chairman of Exfinity, a venture capital fund for technology start-ups here.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has re-nominated P.C. Mohan, who won in 2009, while the Congress is yet to announce its candidate.

The AAP, which released the fourth list of candidates for the Lok Sabha polls in New Delhi, has announced the names for 13 of the 28 parliamentary seats across Karnataka.

The candidates were chosen from about 400 applications the party received to contest the general elections.

The party has chosen Nina P. Nayak, a social worker, for the prestigious Bangalore South seat. She will face Infosys co-founder and UIDAI chairman Nandan Nilekani of the Congress and BJP's five-time MP Ananth Kumar.

"Nayak, who has a master's degree in social work and a certificate in human rights, has three decades of experience in the field of child development and child protection as an administrator, practitioner and trainer," the party said in a statement here.

Former National Law School of India registrar Babu Mathew is the AAP nominee for Bangalore North.

Mathew will face former chief minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda of the BJP, which preferred him over its sitting candidate B. Chandre Gowda, a former state law and parliamentary minister.

Noted Kannada writer and software engineer Ravikrishna Reddy will contest from Bangalore Rural for the AAP.

G. Sridhar Kallahalla, a noted social and environmental reformer, will contest from Shimoga in the Malnad region, which falls under the rich bio-diverse Western Ghats.

Former police officer K. Arkesh will contest from Chikballapur seat, held by Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister M. Veerappa Moily of the Congress.

M.R. Vasudeva, a former director of the Mangalore international airport, will contest from Dakshina Kannada. He will face veteran Congressman Janardhan Poojary and BJP's sitting member Nalin Kumar Kateel.

Former minister B.T. Lalitha Naik will contest from Gulbarga, held by Railway Minister Mallikarjuna Kharge.

Other AAP candidates are: Ashfaq Ahmed Madaki, an educationist, from Chikkodi; Hemant Kumar, a farmer, from Hubli-Dharwad; Chandrakant Kulkarni from Bidar; Bhimaraya from Raichur and Kotiganahalli Ramaiah, a Dalit leader, from Kolar.