AP CM checks in: Is he Reddy to do a Naidu here?

BANGALORE: Is the sibling rivalrybetween Bangalore and Hyderabad all set to take on a new stage? With the AndhraPradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy slated to address industry captainsat a CII Summit in Bangalore on Thursday, memories of Chandrababu Naidu stealingthe hearts of India''s IT captains come crowding in.Naidu set thetone for Hyderabad''s rise over Bangalore''s horizon when he addressed IT CEOs inthe IT capital during the J H Patel regime. It is a coincidence that Reddy willdo a Naidu on Thursday when he will address a group of CEOs during JD(S)-Congcoalition government.According to initial reports, Reddy is alsolikely to meet Bangalore''s richest woman entrepreneur and Biocon chief KiranMazumdar-Shaw and others on the sidelights of the CII summit.Whencontacted, Shankarlinge Gowda, Karnataka''s IT secretary, called it routineoccasion wherein Reddy may be trying to get to know first hand about the IT andBT industries. The question is how to interpret the fact that Bangalore hasbecome a hotspot for other states to come calling industry captains. First cameGujarat CM Narendra Modi, right after the riots in that state to give afeel-good factor. Then the most prominent visitor was Uma Bharti as CM of MadhyaPradesh wooing Wipro and Infosys. Tamil Nadu too tried to take advantage of thehue and cry raised by IT czar Premji when that state''s IT secretary VivekHarinarayan made a passionate pitch.Are other states feeling thatBangalore is saturating and can lure away investors from here? Or is it merelyanother testimony to the importance Bangalore is gaining in the hierarchy of newand younger economy led by IT and BT? Gowda says it''s the latter.Thebigger question that is being asked is: Can this government which is yet to havea full cabinet and is fighting a hundred mutinies over almost everything, giveits intended support to Bangalore''s development?