NEW DELHI: Rajasthan ’s BJP-ruled government has flown right into the AgustaWestland row, although Vasundhara Raje ’s officials insist there’s nothing wrong with their decision.The state government floated a tender on November 21 for a helicopter for Raje, the tender specified the government only wants AgustaWestland’s AW169 helicopter. The deal is estimated to be worth over Rs 50 crore. The tender doesn’t, as is the norm, specify performance criteria and seating capacity. It asks for AW169, therefore, making AgustaWestland the only company qualified to supply the helicopter.Arijeet Banerjee, secretary (information and public relations) in the Rajasthan government, told ET: “I do not have details but it (the tender) is under a buyback process in which the company has to purchase the helicopter (that) the state has.This can be replaced by a new helicopter from the same company.” Rajasthan’s Principal Secretary (civil aviation) PK Goyal did not respond to phone calls and messages from ET. The tender has led to protest letters from US’ Bell and European company Airbus. Their letters, ET has learnt from people familiar with the process, request a fair bidding process in which they can also participate.People quoted above did not want to be identified. The tender is titled ‘Procurement of a factory new AW169 chopper under buyback of AW109E Power helicopter’.Other senior state government officials, who spoke with ET off record, said since the government already had an Agusta chopper, the process aims to get a new one at a cheaper price by exchanging the old helicopter.AgustaWestland’s 2010 deal with the central government on supplying AW101 helicopters for VVIP travel is currently being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). CBI has arrested former Indian Air Force chief SP Tyagi and questioned officials who were part of ex-prime minister Manmohan Singh’s office. In April this year, an Italian court in Milan had held that bribes were paid in securing the 2010 deal.Also, a ‘buyback’ scheme in the 2010 deal is being investigated by CBI. The focus of this part of the investigation is whether the ‘buyback’ scheme was used to supply bribe money. Alleged middleman Christian Michel, who’s on the run from Indian law enforcement agencies, had a euro 18.2-million contract with Agusta to buy back discarded WG30 choppers from India.ET has reviewed documents from the state government’s civil aviation department. Technical details about a desirable model of helicopter mentioned in these documents mirror details from technical manuals of the AW169. The tender also, unusually, gave contenders only seven days to respond. Most tenders of this nature give one month or more as response time.In a Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report of 2008, the national auditor had said the 2005 Rajasthan government decision to buy the AW109 chopper had caused the state government a loss of Rs 1.14 crore. In 2005, a Vasundhara Raje-led BJP government was in power in Rajasthan, which was in the middle of its 2003-08 term.