Yeddy has tiff with NICE man

Yeddy has tiff with NICE man
By: B V Shiva Shankar
Date: 2008-09-19

Bangalore:

The latest political friendship gone awry is of chief minister B S Yeddyurappa and NICE man Ashok Kheny.
Reason: Kheny's political ambition.

Trigger: Affidavit filed by the state government before the Supreme Court accusing Kheny of grabbing extra land for his Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor (BMIC).

"I am surprised. Yeddyurappa is doing a Deve Gowda," said Ashok Kheny, CEO of Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises (NICE). "Gowda suffered a political setback while opposing the project, and I don't want this to happen to Yeddyurappa."

The highway builder gave the chief minister a two-week ultimatum. "I am ready to bend and I expect the same from him," he said. "I will wait for two weeks. If the same thing continues then we will have to part ways. And once an enemy, always an enemy," Kheny said.

After a long drawn out legal wrangling, thanks to JD(S) boss Deve Gowda's enmity with Kheny, the Supreme Court order allowed the BMIC work to continue in 2006 when Gowda's son Kumaraswamy was the chief minister.
However, NICE filed a contempt suit after the government's noncooperation.

Kheny, who had spent crores of rupees to fund Yeddy's poll expenses, had hoped that once Yeddyurappa was chief minister, all the hurdles would be cleared.

However he was taken aback when the government's affidavit, filed on Wednesday, had the same allegations that Deve Gowda had made earlier. "The project was delayed because NICE was trying to extract more land than allotted."

According to the framework agreement, signed in 1998, BMIC was sanctioned 20,193 acres. Deve Gowda accused NICE of using an extra 2,400 acres in 2004, leading to a high-profile tussle.

But, Gowda could not identify the extra land. Even the K C Reddy Committee that looked into the issue could not find the extra land and had asked KIADB to identify it.

"We met Yeddyurappa just a couple of weeks ago," said a source close to Kheny. "And he had assured us that he would clear the hurdles, and would not raise the extra land issue before the court. But I don't know why he suddenly changed his stance."

Political interest

BJP sources attribute the change in Yeddyurappa's stance to the political ambition that Kheny has been nursing of late. Kheny wanted to contest from Hassan with a BJP ticket in the next parliamentary elections. Hassan is his bete noir Deve Gowda's constituency.

Yeddyurappa, who had initially accepted the idea, turned down the offer prompting Kheny to approach the party high command in New Delhi.

When Kheny met prime ministerial candidate L K Advani to put forth his desire Yeddyuarppa was reportedly annoyed and plotted to clip his wings.

Responding to this, Kheny said, "I have spoken to Advani on various issues. Yeddyurappa need not be worried about it. Regarding contesting elections, we will sit and discuss it."

AK: A scapegoat?

Ashok Kheny is fuming. He thinks advocate general Uday Holla used the affidavit to settle old scores with him. Since 2002, Holla has been appearing for Kheny's opponents in various cases.

When Kumaraswamy was chief minister in 2006, he made Holla the advocate-general. When Yeddy took charge in May this year, Kheny wanted Ashoka Haranahalli to be advocate-general, but out of political compulsion, Yeddy brought Holla back.

Now, Kheny thinks Holla is responsible for this tiff. A source said he might urge Yeddy to oust Holla, if they call a truce. "Let them do anything, I am not bothered," said Uday Holla.