Bangalore: Multi-crore Keonics Tender - Yeddy in Trouble ?

by Narayana Swamy - Mysore
Political Analyst, Daijiworld.com

Bangalore, Jun 6: Yeddyurappa and his team may be in a jubilant mood after their recent victory in the trust vote, the vanishing act of the dissidents within the party and the successful completion of three years in power, the first BJP government in South India. However, the jubilations may be a little too soon, as a new headache is about to create quite a lot of trouble and tension in the Yeddy camp.

It has come to the notice of a section of the media that coming under pressure from his son Raghavendra, Yeddyurappa has awarded a multi-crore e-learning project to a company called Keonics to avoid tender process.

This move by Yeddyurappa has already made some of the state's top BJP leaders unhappy, and reportedly, the entire Keonics project file has reached the party high command in New Delhi.

As Baba Ramdev's movement has been hogging the limelight in all the print and electronic media across the nation, and also because BJP leaders are busy protesting the Centre's action against Baba Ramdev, the file might not get immediate attention.

As the project was related to primary education ministry, it was given the green signal without any discussion in the cabinet meeting, and minister Kageri Vishweshwara Hegde was asked to keep quiet on the issue by the chief minister himself.

This also throws light on chief minister Yeddyurappa's repeated interference in other ministries. One may recall that several ministers in the cabinet were not happy with the direct interference of the CM and power minister Shobha Karandlaje in files of other ministries. The first dissidence within the party led by the Reddy brothers was exposed due to the same 'interferrence' factor.

It has been gathered that those who are unhappy with the Yeddy camp might make use of this issue to shake the CM's chair. But once again it entirely depends on the high command's decision and the way it handles the matter. Political expert say that Yeddyurappa has faced much bigger problems in the past, so it might not affect him, unless once again both the opposition parties take advantage of the issue as a strong tool to try and destabilise the government.