Anxious to push projects, CM gets impatient with bureaucrats

Some reports, denied by the Principal Secretary’s office, even suggested that the CM slapped his Principal Secretary. To prove nothing is amiss the Principal Secretary has pointed out that he ate all his meals with the CM on the fateful day.

According to officials in the CM’s office, showdowns between Yeddyurappa and his trusted aide, not denied by either party, have been regular features of the three-month-old Government.

A senior state Government official, who has worked with Yeddyurappa during his tenure as finance minister in the BJP-JD(S) government, said the new CM is often over -anxious to push projects through with little regard for the rulebooks.

The latest showdown occurred after some BJP MLAs complained to the CM regarding files pertaining to their constituencies pending in the Principal Secretary’s office over a long period of time. Officials from the offices of the CM and the Principal Secretary indicated that duplication of file perusals at the level of the Principal Secretary and his subordinate secretaries was resulting in delays in clearances and that, in turn, resulted in complaints.

There are now reports of the Baligar seeking a possible move out of the CM’s office. “This is not new. There was a move proposed by the CM himself to move the Principal Secretary to the Finance Department to enable speedy clearances of funds for development projects,” an official said.

Since coming to power, the BJP and Yeddyurappa have followed a strategy of consolidating the party’s numbers in the state Assembly, while pushing development measures through with an eye on the Lok Sabha elections. Enlarging the BJP’s base by reducing the opposition’s base and pumping in funds for development in areas that have elected BJP representatives form the core of this strategy. As a part of this twin strategy, the CM has been at the helm of a movement called ‘Operation Lotus’ or ‘Operation Resignation’ to poach MLAs from the Congress and the JD(S) in order to reduce the strength of the Opposition and to lay the ground for a good BJP performance in the Lok Sabha polls.

As part of the operation, the BJP has so far lured nine sitting MLAs from the Opposition to the BJP. Seven of the nine MLAs have quit the party they represented in the May Assembly polls and joined the BJP and will contest bypolls on BJP tickets. ‘Operation Lotus’, viewed as suicidal in some political quarters in the event of a loss in the bypolls has now temporarily been put on hold following rising discontent within the BJP itself over outsiders gaining precedence over long-term BJP leaders.