BJP chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa is known to be hot headed and impatient — frequently flying into a fury over perceived bureaucratic stumbling blocks. One reason former prime minister and JD(S) leader H D Deve Gowda accorded in October 2007 while refusing to hand over power to the BJP was Yeddyurappa’s impetuosness. Gowda had demanded continuation with his son H D Kumaraswamy or an alternate candidate as chief minister on the grounds that IAS officers would find it hard to work with Yeddyurappa.

Despite making a controlled and cautious beginning, Yeddyurappa’s irascibility is now in the news. The past week was dominated by rumours of a big showdown between the Chief Minister and his hand-picked Principal Secretary V P Baligar, an officer known for being upright and having a no nonsense approach.

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.

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