Vishal Sikka says no reason to stay on at Infosys after Nandan Nilekani’s return

A day after Nandan Nilekani returned to Infosys as chairman, former CEO Vishal Sikka said on Friday he had offered to leave with immediate effect as he saw no reason to continue in the company.

Sikka’s resignation as CEO last week escalated the tensions between the founders and the management of India’s second largest software company. He was then named vice chairman.

On Thursday, chairman R Seshasayee quit from his post along with two other directors and Sikka, who also tendered his resignation from the board.

“With Nandan coming it, it wasn’t right for me to hang on and I offered to leave immediately,” Sikka told news channel CNBC-TV18.

He added that strategic direction for the company is straightforward and there will be no abrupt change, given that interim CEO UB Pravin Rao has been an active part of the execution strategy.

Sikka, however, dodged questions on whether he would be speaking to co-founder NR Narayana Murthy, who led a vocal campaign against alleged corporate governance lapses at the firm.

He clarified that he had not made any specific remarks against Murthy and that his comments referred to the “noises” that were causing “severe distractions”.

“Whoever was spreading these, I have no idea and interest in finding out who was behind them,” he added.

He refuted reports that he was headed to Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) as the CTO.

“It’s not true…I used to be an intern at HP. Someone is keenly trying to put me in a box. The story isn’t true,” he said.

Sikka said it was “day 1” for him and he was keen on spending more time with his family.