<p>The upcoming elections to state assemblies and Parliament may see fresh faces from the corporate sector, sportspersons and academics jostle for political space with kurta-clad leaders.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Names of professionals like Nandan Nilekani, Rajeev Gowda, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore and Krishna Poonia are already being talked about for a possible role in electoral politics.<br /><br />While Nilekani, a former CEO of Infosys and now Chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India, is testing the political waters for his chances as a Congress candidate from the Bangalore South Lok Sabha seat, Commonwealth Games gold-medallist athlete Poonia is being considered by the Congress as its nominee for the Sadulpur assembly seat in Rajasthan.<br /><br />Rajeev Gowda, a professor at the Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore, articulates the Congress view on debates on news channels and is a regular at the party’s brainstorming sessions. Gowda is also being talked about as a possible candidate from Bangalore in the Lok Sabha election next year.<br /><br />Rathore, a Colonel in the Indian Army, took voluntary retirement to join the Bharatiya Janata Party at a rally addressed by the party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi in Jaipur last week.<br />Political parties may have the middle-class voters, particularly youth in urban areas, in mind while tossing up fresh, non-controversial faces as alternatives to conventional politicians.<br /><br />The participation of the urban youth in anti-corruption protests could be seen as an indication that it is disillusioned with such politicians.<br /><br />However, Nilekani et al would not be the first to don the political hat. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh himself was a career bureaucrat before joining politics. Similarly, former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi was a pilot with Indian Airlines. More recently, actor Ramya won the by-election to the Mandya Lok Sabha seat in Karnataka on a Congress ticket.<br /><br />Prasun Banerjee, who won the by-election to the Howrah Parliamentary seat in west Bengal as a Trinamool Congress candidate, was an international footballer and a member of the Indian football team which reached the quarter finals of the 9th Asian Games in Delhi.<br /><br />Ajay Kumar, a Lok Sabha member from Jamshedpur, had donned many hats—a medical doctor and an IPS officer with a stint in the corporate sector with Tata Sons and Apollo Group under his belt—before he joined politics.<br /><br />Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi and Union ministers Jyotiraditya Scindia and Sachin Pilot gave up their corporate careers to join politics. Union minister Shashi Tharoor opted for the khadi kurta, a favourite with politicians, after a successful stint at the United Nations.</p>
<p>The upcoming elections to state assemblies and Parliament may see fresh faces from the corporate sector, sportspersons and academics jostle for political space with kurta-clad leaders.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Names of professionals like Nandan Nilekani, Rajeev Gowda, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore and Krishna Poonia are already being talked about for a possible role in electoral politics.<br /><br />While Nilekani, a former CEO of Infosys and now Chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India, is testing the political waters for his chances as a Congress candidate from the Bangalore South Lok Sabha seat, Commonwealth Games gold-medallist athlete Poonia is being considered by the Congress as its nominee for the Sadulpur assembly seat in Rajasthan.<br /><br />Rajeev Gowda, a professor at the Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore, articulates the Congress view on debates on news channels and is a regular at the party’s brainstorming sessions. Gowda is also being talked about as a possible candidate from Bangalore in the Lok Sabha election next year.<br /><br />Rathore, a Colonel in the Indian Army, took voluntary retirement to join the Bharatiya Janata Party at a rally addressed by the party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi in Jaipur last week.<br />Political parties may have the middle-class voters, particularly youth in urban areas, in mind while tossing up fresh, non-controversial faces as alternatives to conventional politicians.<br /><br />The participation of the urban youth in anti-corruption protests could be seen as an indication that it is disillusioned with such politicians.<br /><br />However, Nilekani et al would not be the first to don the political hat. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh himself was a career bureaucrat before joining politics. Similarly, former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi was a pilot with Indian Airlines. More recently, actor Ramya won the by-election to the Mandya Lok Sabha seat in Karnataka on a Congress ticket.<br /><br />Prasun Banerjee, who won the by-election to the Howrah Parliamentary seat in west Bengal as a Trinamool Congress candidate, was an international footballer and a member of the Indian football team which reached the quarter finals of the 9th Asian Games in Delhi.<br /><br />Ajay Kumar, a Lok Sabha member from Jamshedpur, had donned many hats—a medical doctor and an IPS officer with a stint in the corporate sector with Tata Sons and Apollo Group under his belt—before he joined politics.<br /><br />Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi and Union ministers Jyotiraditya Scindia and Sachin Pilot gave up their corporate careers to join politics. Union minister Shashi Tharoor opted for the khadi kurta, a favourite with politicians, after a successful stint at the United Nations.</p>
