UIDAI chief Nandan Nilekani on Friday said he wants to enter the political fray and would contest the 2014 Lok Sabha elections if the Congress gives him a ticket, CNBC-TV18 reported.
The news puts an end to months of speculation about a likely political role for the former Infosys executive.
UIDAI Chief Nandan Nilekani. PTI
Earlier, there were reports that Nilekani was likely to contest from Bangalore South constituency in the coming elections. There was even speculation that he may be named the Congress' prime ministerial candidate.
He, however, had dismissed the rumours, terming them "rubbish".
In a possible hint at his political ambitions he had last week said that, "...to be in politics one needs thick skin."
He was responding to criticism from his former colleague Mohandas Pai that he has no right to contest from Bangalore as he has done nothing for the city.
"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 in The Economic Times.
Nilekani had quit Infosys in 2009 to head the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), which was set up by UPA-2 with the aim of giving Aadhaar cards to all Indian residents. Aadhaar cards have been central to the UPA's pro-poor policies. They have also been criticised as an intrusion into citizens' privacy.
"It is a Trojan horse gifted by a dysfunctional government which will ultimately compromise our security without even a figleaf of statutory protection for our privacy," R Jaganathan had said in an earlier Firstpost article.
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