Prime Minister accepts Nandan Nilekeni's resignation

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today accepted the resignation of UIDAI Chairman Nandan Nilekeni who has quit to contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections from Bangalore South constituency on Congress ticket.

While accepting the resignation, Singh thanked Nilekeni for his "excellent leadership of the effort to provide a unique identity to all residents of the country", PMO said. The Prime Minister also wished him all success in his future endeavours. Nilekeni, Infosys co-founder and face of UPA government's flagship 'Aadhar' programme, resigned yesterday as Chairman of Unique Identification Authority of India, three days after joining Congress.

After his exit as CEO of Bangalore headquartered Infosys in 2007, Nilekani had taken charge as head of UIDAI, mandated to give a billion Indians an identity card, a mammoth exercise that he had been successfully overseeing.

Nilekani formally took a political plunge on Sunday, when he joined Congress, a day after the party named him as its candidate from Bangalore South, where he is taking on five-time BJP MP Ananth Kumar in a tough battle. Bangalore South has been a hostile terrain for Congress which had been tasting defeat since the late 1970s, barring in 1989 when former Chief Minister late R Gundu Rao had won.