Aam Aadmi Party to field candidates against Moily, Ananth Kumar

Former board member Infy V Balakrishnan inducted in party, donates Rs 25 lakh

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Saturday officially inducted V Balakrishnan, former board member of Infosys, into the party.

The AAP also inducted four other prominent civil society members such as P A Nazareth, former Indian ambassador to the US, Ramaneek Bakshi, golfer and director of World Presidents' Organisation, Ravikrishna Reddy, software professional, and Shantala Damle. They were members of the Loksatta Party earlier.

According to Balakrishnan, India is a poorly governed country and facing a huge challenge in fighting corruption. He said he joined the party to bring about change in the system.

Before quitting Infosys, Bala, as he is popularly called, was heading India business unit of the company and in-charge of the BPO operations and subsidiary Infosys Lodestone. He was widely speculated to succeed S D Shibulal as CEO and MD of Infosys.

Balakrishnan said, "Corruption is a biggest challenge in India today. AAP is bringing in a huge change in the country, as it has already demonstrated in Delhi. I want to be part of this change."

Prithvi Reddy, the convenor of AAP's Karnataka unit, said the party was launching a campaign in Karnataka to spread awareness about corrupt leaders fighting general elections from various parties.

Reddy announced that the party had received Rs 25 lakh donation from Balakrishnan for the party's activities.

The party has launched a new slogan: "Aam aadmi in every household and aam aadmi to every house". The party will go to all villages across the state starting the first week of February. "We will go to every village and town to understand the problems of the common man. We are assuring the country of a stable and transparent administration. We will also field our candidates against every corrupt politician cutting across the parties," Reddy said.

The party has already announced 25 candidates for the upcoming general elections. In Karnataka, the party will field its candidates against four prominent and 'corrupt' leaders such as M Veerappa Moily of Congress, H N Ananth Kumar and B S Yeddyurappa of BJP and H D Kumaraswamy of the Janata Dal (Secular), he said.

In total, the AAP will field candidates in 162 constituencies in the country as decided in the executive committee meeting of the party held in Delhi, Reddy added.