Thursday, December 22 2005 14:45 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Bangalore: Naxalite menace raring its ugly head, split in the ruling coalition partner JD(S) and confrontation between the IT sector and the state government came to the fore in the year 2005 in Karnataka.

Continuing tensions between ruling Congress and JD(S) which also came out prominently during the year, however, had a silver lining for the state's economy with the long awaited Bangalore international airport project taking off at last.

February saw the naxalite menace raising its ugly head in Chikmagalur district. The killing of two naxalites, including its top leader and state general secretary of CPI (ML) Sanket Rajan in a police encounter was immediately followed by a retaliatory attack by the ultra-left group on a police camp killing six policemen and a civilian in Pavagada taluk of Tumkur district.

As Naxalites tried to gain foothold in Malnad districts seeking to widen their network, the government announced deployment of STF to curb their activities while also sending a message that it was ready for a dialogue with them.

Uneasy relations between the Congress and JD(S) continued to dog the government run by them but it was overshadowed by the revolt in the outfit headed by former prime minister and party supremo H D Deve Gowda as one of its senior most leaders Siddaramaiah led the rebels challenging the hold of Gowda's family over the party.

Siddaramaiah's simmering discontent against Gowda came out in a concrete form when he defied him to attend a convention of backward classes, dalits and minorities which infuriated the JD(S) chief who promptly asked Chief Minister N Dharam Singh to sack him as the deputy chief minister.

Administering pinpricks, Siddaramaiah also held a parallel convention and removed Gowda as the party president and staked claim for the party symbol.

However, it was a matter of comfort for Gowda that Siddaramaiah could not wean away that number of legislators, which could damage the party.

The month of May saw the end of the sensational Shakereh Khaleeli murder case with her second husband, self-proclaimed Godman, Swami Shraddhananda who buried her alive 14 years ago, being awarded death sentence by a trial court here which was later confirmed by Karnataka High Court.

Congress suffered a drubbing in the two bye-elections as it lost in the Shimoga Lok Sabha seat and Chamarajpet Assembly constituency, held by former Chief Minister S M Krishna before becoming Maharashtra governor, to Samajwadi Party (SP) and its coalition partner JD(S) respectively in June.

June also saw Congress and JD(S) on a collision course on Rs 6,000 crore Metro rail project. While Congress strongly supported it, Deve Gowda terming as it 'ruinously expensive' urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to analyse the proposal before implementing it.

Bangalore continued to shine as the IT capital of the country but the confrontation between the government and the IT industry over Infrastructural woes in Bangalore left a bitter taste.

The IT sector spoke out strongly against the government's 'indifferent' approach in getting things moving to provide better roads, ease traffic congestion and make living conditions better.

The Government hit and charged the IT sector with complaining too much for ills that were not the products of the coalition governance and even accusing them of trying to deliberately bringing a bad name to it.

The confrontation became more bitter when H D Deve Gowda chose to attack celebrated technocrat and Infosys Chief Mentor N R Narayana Murthy questioning his contributions as the chief of Bangalore International Airport Limited, leading to his resignation from the post.

Gowda also targetted the IT sector, accusing some firms of grabbing land and questioned the need for allotting land sought by Infosys for a new development centre and township it planned to build. Infosys promptly countered Gowda point by point to assert that it never grabbed any land and it was purchased at market rates.

The annual premier IT show saw Devegowda using the platform to launch a fresh offensive against a section of the IT sector accusing them of carrying a 'whispering campaign' to destabilise his party's coalition government with Congress.