BIOGRAPHY: UTTAR PRADESH CHIEF MINISTER MAYAWATI:

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 NEW DELHI 002433 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPT FOR SCA/INS, DRL, INR/B E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/22/2027 TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL PINR IN SUBJECT: BIOGRAPHY: UTTAR PRADESH CHIEF MINISTER MAYAWATI: THE NEW QUEEN IN TOWN Classified By: PolOff Joel Ehrendreich for reasons 1.4 (B,D) A Rough and Tumble Career -------------- ¶1. (C) On May 13, 2007, Kumari Mayawati, commonly referred to as Mayawati or Bhenji (sister),was sworn in as Chief Minister (CM) of Uttar Pradesh (UP),India's most populous state. President of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP),a party created to represent low caste voters, Mayawati has long been a firebrand leader of India,s historically oppressed classes. Despite being born into the Hindu Jatav (or Chamar) community, on the bottom of the dalit (formerly untouchable) group of castes, Mayawati has been elected to both houses of Parliament for multiple terms, and has been Chief Minister (CM) of Uttar Pradesh (UP) three times, (1995, 1997, and 2002-2003). 2 (C) An icon for the lower castes, Mayawati was the first dalit to head an Indian state government; at the age of 39, she was also the youngest politician to become a CM. Unfortunately, her first government did not last more than four months due to her coalition partner, the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) pulling support from her government. In 1997, she returned as CM, at the head of another BSP-BJP coalition government. This time her government lasted six months, as she was burned again by the BJP. Largely dismissed as a political novice, attitudes towards her changed after the February 2002 state assembly elections, when she became CM of UP for the third time, again with the help of the BJP. However, in July 2003, Mayawati stepped down as CM, handing over the government to Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav after her coalition partner, the BJP, left the coalition for the third and last time. Despite her repeated falls from power, she remained a key player in UP politics, as her party maintained absolute control over one-fifth of the state,s electorate (the dalits). ¶3. (C) In addition to serving as Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Mayawati has won elections at the national and state levels, having been elected to the Lok Sabha (lower House) in 1989, 1998, 1999 and 2004 and the Rajya Sabha (upper House) in 1994 and 2004. As a Member of Parliament, Mayawati served on the Committee on the Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and the Consultative Committee of the �00A;Ministry of Communications. Mayawati was elected to the UP state assembly in 1996 and 2002. The New BSP: Appealing to the Spectrum of Caste -------------- ¶4. (C) Since taking over the BSP as President in 2003, Mayawati has toned down her anti-upper-caste rhetoric to broaden her support base. Political pundits note that she was determined to move beyond her dalit base and reach out to upper caste Brahmins and Thakurs (ksatriyas),and win the Muslims away from the rival Samajwadi Party (SP). Her strategy proved to be a monumental success, as Muslims deserted the SP, and Brahmins left the BJP shifting their loyalty to Mayawati. This emergent caste formula brought her back as CM with an absolute majority in the May 2007 elections, inflicting severe defeats on her political rivals. Vision for UP's Future -------------- ¶5. (C) Upon taking office on May 13, Mayawati announced plans to focus on social justice through the introduction of legislation and providing employment instead of continuing Mulayam Singh's program of distributing money to the unemployed. Her slogan is to make Uttar Pradesh into an Uttam (excellent) Pradesh. The New Queen-Maker in Town? -------------- ¶6. (C) Mayawati was born on January 15, 1956 to Prabhu Das NEW DELHI 00002433 002 OF 003 (father) and Ram Rathi (mother),in a low caste Hindu family in the UP village of Badalpur in Gautam Buddha Nagar district. Her father retired from the Post and Telegraphs Department as a senior clerk. Mayawati graduated with a Bachelors of Education from Kalinda College in Delhi. Hoping to become a district magistrate, she studied law at the University of Delhi and worked as a teacher before embarking on her political career. After joining the BSP in 1984, she was picked up by the party President Kanshi Ram, who groomed her as his successor. He is believed to have told his protg she was destined to become a queen who would control the fate of many district magistrates rather than be one of them. ¶7. (C) In the heat of the 2007 campaign and its aftermath, press reports appeared alleging that there was more to Mayawati's relationship with Kanshi Ram than met the eye, and that she was his "mistress." We have seen no evidence to substantiate such allegations and suspect that the stories were planted by Mulayam Singh Yadav in an attempt to discredit her. ¶8. (C) Mayawati is single with no children. Mayawati has traveled to Canada, the United Kingdom, Denmark, France, Japan, Switzerland, Taiwan, and South Korea. She visited Washington, DC and New York as part of the Indian parliamentary delegation to attend the Inter-Parliamentary Union Meeting on Beijing 5 Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly on the Status of Women. Her hobbies include reading and gardening. She speaks Hindi and Punjabi. Comment -------------- ¶9. (C) Mayawati is an astute politician, but has been hampered by a lack of political sophistication, an erratic nature, and a strong autocratic streak. On her own, her slow rise to power would have been highly unlikely. However, three powerful advisors have taken her under their wing and worked with her to devise a winning electoral strategy. Mayawati does not take major decisions without first consulting Satishchandra Mishra (a Brahmin),Nasimuddin Siddiqui (a Muslim),and Babu Singh Khushwaha (a lower caste Hindu). Thanks to their behind the scenes guidance, a woman who was intiailly dismissed as a political novice now poses a serious threat to Congress President Sonia Gandhi. Mayawati's successful co-option of traditional Congress vote banks has propelled her into solid control of one of India's most important states and she now carries significant political weight on her own. ¶10. (C) Despite her new-found political clout, there is little to indicate that Mayawati has acquired maturity and good judgment. Her approach to politics is hampered by strong emotionalism and an unpleasant authoritarian bent that could prevent her from playing a greater role on the political stage. She views politics as total war and nurses grudges against her political opponents. In the rough and tumble of UP politics, she has acquired lots of enemies and is bent on exacting revenge against them for a long list of perceived wrongs. This could side-track her from governance (never one of her strong points) and prevent her from implementing a cohesive development program for her backward state. In the past, Mayawati has largely failed to deliver on her promises for justice, good governance and economic development. ¶11. (C) Mayawati runs the BSP as her personal fiefdom, treating the party budget as her personal preserve. As Chief Minister, she routinely appropriates large slices of public funds for the personal use of her and her family. Although personally corrupt, she will not countenance corruption among her officials. Instead, she prefers to dole out monetary rewards as personal favors for loyalty and good performance. Those who do not meet her expectations or become objects of her wrath can expect instant repercussions. She has in the past routinely dismissed public officials at a moment's NEW DELHI 00002433 003 OF 003 notice. ¶12. (C) Although her advisors are largely responsible for her success, they are not allowed to cultivate their own power bases and must demonstrate absolute loyalty to her. At the head of a "one woman party," her rule has taken on quasi fascist trappings including a cult of personality, replete with garlanding of her statues and the construction of large public monuments to her and other Dalit heroes at public expense. She is also fond of staging large public rallies that rival anything seen in Nazi Germany during Hitler's regime. ¶13. (C) Mayawati's authoritarian approach to governance has yielded quick results, as she cleans the augean stables of corruption, firing the inefficient, inept and utterly corrupt. She has little patience with the kind of mafia rule that crippled UP under Mulayam and can be expected to quickly restore law and order by purging the police of its embedded gangsters and compelling the state's inefficient, corrupt and lazy police force to perform. These early benefits could quickly erode as Mayawati's innate shortcomings become more apparent with the passage of time. PYATT