Infy’s Balakrishnan takes defeat in stride

Sangeetha Chengappa Updated - May 16, 2014 at 10:50 PM.

Former Infosys CFO V Balakrishnan, the Aam Admi Party candidate who came third in the Bangalore Central constituency, has said that he is not unduly perturbed by his defeat.

“I do my best in whatever it is that I take up and I have done my best with these elections,” Bala told Business Line .

He expected his party to sweep the elections in Delhi but with AAP not even winning a single seat there, he believes it was because it failed to communicate its policies with the electorate properly.

“Please remember, AAP is a one-year old party born to fight corruption and crony capitalism, which is very good. It has been widely accepted by the youth and middle classes because it created a clear differentiator in the political scene.” He attributed the BJP’s victory to three reasons. “People were sick of instability in the Government and wanted a stable Government. Second, there is a huge anti-Congress wave prevailing across the country. Third, the sheer money power of the BJP which went into advertising and marketing the Modi brand and BJP contributed to the party’s win.”

“While I will continue to be an active member of AAP, I want to be involved in multiple things. I am running a private equity fund and am also involved with MicroGraam, a microfinance company that works toward improving the livelihood of underprivileged people, of which I was made the chairman last year,” he said. He expects to get his party to start working towards getting its candidates win during the local municipal elections which are expected to be held soon. “We already have our Mission 2015 in place for the civic elections and are currently in the process of identifying good candidates who can lead the individual constituencies here. Another important task is to come up with an effective communication strategy for the people of Bangalore.”

Not one to give in to post-elections gloom, Bala said, it is very important for a person to take everything on one’s chin in life. I have to meet more people, communicate better with all of them and try and convince them about AAP and what it can do for Bangalore and the country. For the record, Bala polled 39,869 votes, while the BJP candidate, PC Mohan, the winning candidate, polled 5.57 lakh.

Published on May 16, 2014 17:20