Nandan Nilekani, the chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India and co-founder of IT giant Infosys, is now facing heat from his ex-colleague Mohandas Pai on the former's possible potential Congress candidature from Bangalore South Lok Sabha constituency.

Nandan Nilekani, the chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India and co-founder of IT giant Infosys, is now facing heat from his ex-colleague Mohandas Pai on the former's possible potential Congress candidature from Bangalore South Lok Sabha constituency.

Bangalore South is a mix of upscale and poor localities but has sizable youth population working in the IT/BT sectors. It is currently represented by the BJP's Ananth Kumar.

While Nilekani's role in crafting "Brand Bangalore" is not insignificant since it was largely Infosys that put the shine back into Bangalore and made it the country's unquestionable IT capital, Pai has questioned Nilekani's suitability to represent Bangalore.

"While Nandan has done (unique identity number) Aadhaar, I don't know what he has done for Bangalore," Pai told ET NOW.

"There is deep concern among citizens that we are getting a person imposed from above to be an MP, who has not done grassroots work, not been around, who a particular party is trying to parachute here to be a nominee and fight," Pai was quoted as saying by the Economic Times.

Pai is the chairperson of the Board of Manipal Global Education Services Pvt. Ltd., an education services provider to institutions worldwide. In 2000, he along with certain other philanthropists set up the AkshayaPatra Foundation, Bangalore, which is currently the world's largest mid-day meal programme for school going children. Pai is also the Vice-President of the Bangalore Political Action Committee, a lobby group founded by professionals and business executives with the aim of nudging politics in the direction of good governance.

As Dhiraj Nayyar argues in an earlierFirstpost article it is significant that the Congress is Nilekani'sparty of choice.

"The tenures of UPA-1 and UPA-2 have reinvented the Congress as a party that is reflexively against business and anti-free markets, a U-turn from the Rajiv Gandhi and Narasimha Rao eras.

The Congress is also viewed as a party wedded to unsustainable populism with a minimal stake in economic growth and wealth creation. Needless to say it also increasingly seen as a party captured by dynastic politics at all levels. In such a scenario, the entry of a wealth-creating capitalist with no political antecedents into the realm of the party's electoral calculus can only be welcome news, even if it's just a drop in the ocean," the article said.