Karnataka in tizzy as N Chandrababu Naidu woos big firms

Bengaluru, Hyderabad: AP Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu's visit to Bengaluru to woo investors has stirred the cauldron for the Karnataka government.

Mr Naidu has built a reputation for wooing big ticket investors to Hyderabad previously, and is now  looking for investments in AP.

His visit to Bengaluru on Tuesday came amid a controversy with Infosys returning a 100-acre piece of land allotted to it in a tech park. The tech major said the Karnataka government had not provided infrastructure to the area, where it intends to set up an office for about 20,000 staff.

The Karnataka government is meeting on Thursday to decide the fate of the Devanahalli Business Park, where Infosys is returning its land.

Karnataka IT minister S.R. Patil said, “Tomorrow, we will solve this problem.” With Infosys demanding a refund on its deposit, Mr Patil maintained, “Infosys is not thinking of withdrawing from Karnataka.”

There is an expectation that Mr Naidu would be wooing information technology companies in Karna-taka, and not just Infosys.

The Telugu Desam on Tuesday sounded a warning to Bengaluru that Mr Naidu was on the prowl to attract tech firms to Andhra Pradesh.

A post on the TD’s official facebook page read, “Beware Bengaluru! CBN (Chandrababu Naidu) is on the prowl!!”

It continued to say that “Karnataka is whining about companies showing keen interest in setting up base in Andhra Pradesh.”

Mr Naidu tweeted early in the morning on Tuesday on his route to Bengaluru, “En-route Bangalore for AP Road Show on IT & Industry promotion. Have a couple of meetings lined up. I'll be addressing CISCO employees too.”

He met with heads of Nutanics and Khosla Labs. The post might not go down too well with Karnataka as it sounds an open challenge to the state.

The party said the Mr Naidu is giving the state more reasons to worry, claiming that IT companies are willing to shift base to AP.

A Telugu post said Bengaluru is facing an Andhra scare and recalled that Karnataka had complained to the Centre in the past about AP attracting its firms.