BHARAT BALLOT 09: POLLING IN MADHYA PRADESH GENERATES HEAT,

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 MUMBAI 000187 SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV KDEM IN PINR SUBJECT: BHARAT BALLOT 09: POLLING IN MADHYA PRADESH GENERATES HEAT, NOT LIGHT REF: 08 MUMBAI 587 MUMBAI 00000187 001.2 OF 004 ¶1. (U) Summary: As Madhya Pradesh went to the polls in two phases in April, observers described the campaigns as lackluster, with little drama and few issues to excite the voters. The state, one of the poorest in India, has been ruled at the state level by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) since 2003; in the last Lok Sabha elections, the BJP took 25 out of 29 seats as well. However, political observers say the Congress Party will regain some ground in the Lok Sabha as it did in the state-level election in November 2008, picking up as many as three to seven seats; these gains may come in the tribal areas along the southern and eastern borders of the state. With no national issues to get out the vote, voter turnout in the scorching heat was lower than hoped, estimated at about 51 percent overall. Commentators predicted that winning candidates will largely succeed on their own merits, rather than due to the platforms, messages, or personalities of the political parties. End Summary. MADHYA PRADESH BASICS -------------- ¶2. (U) Madhya Pradesh (MP) went to the polls to elect 29 Members to the Lok Sabha (the lower house of Parliament) in two phases, April 23 and 30. With a population of over 60 million and nearly 39 million eligible voters, MP has the seventh-largest state delegation in the Lok Sabha. Though essentially a two-party race between the BJP and Congress, 27 parties fielded candidates and 89 people ran as independents. Going into the elections, the BJP held 23 Lok Sabha seats, the Congress five and the Samajwadi Party (SP) one. Last year, the BJP's Parliamentarian from Bhind defected to the SP, and the BJP Parliamentarian from Damoh, ejected from the party over his support for the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) in the no-confidence vote last fall resulting from the U.S.-India Civil Nuclear Cooperation Initiative, joined the Congress. Four of the state's seats are reserved for members of Scheduled Castes (SC, or Dalits) and six, along the periphery of the state, are reserved for members of Scheduled Tribes (ST, or "tribals"). (Note: Tribals comprise 21 percent of the state's population. End note.) Heavyweights contesting from MP include the Congress's Kamal Nath, the Union Minister for Commerce and Industry, and Jyotiraditya Scindia, Union Minister of State for IT and Communications. Long time Gandhi loyalist Arjun Singh, the Union Minister for Human Development, however, was stunned when the Congress denied tickets to his children: daughter Veena Singh is running as an Independent for the Sidhi district, while his son, Ajay Singh, a state legislator, wanted to contest the seat in Satna, but decided to sit out rather than contest as an independent. VOTERS SOMBER AND SUBDUED -------------- ¶3. (SBU) Congenoffs visited MP April 29 and 30 to gauge the election mood and found a somber, dispirited electorate. Rakesh Dixit, the Hindustan Times' Bhopal bureau chief told Congenoffs "this was the dullest election in memory." Media sources estimated that voter turn out was 51 percent, up slightly from the 48 percent turn out in the last national election, but far lower than the hoped for 60 percent. He said young voters failed to turn out despite a huge push by the parties, the media, and Bollywood stars. While conceding that the scorching heat -- 104 to 113 degrees Fahrenheit -- may have been a factor, he said voter apathy was the primary cause. Neither party excited the voters, he lamented. Umesh Trivedi, an editor with the NaiDunia group of Hindi newspapers, said that those who actually voted were motivated by a sense of obligation to the system or by the individual candidates in each district rather than national level issues. OBSERVERS BELIEVE BJP WILL SLIP, CONGRESS TO GAIN -------------- -------------- MUMBAI 00000187 002.2 OF 004 ¶4. (U) In a repeat of the State Assembly elections in November 2008, the Lok Sabha election is largely a fight between Congress and BJP candidates. In the 2008 state elections, the BJP was re-elected with a firm mandate, winning 143 of 230 Assembly seats. Observers credited the BJP's successful re-election in the 2008 Assembly elections to the leadership and appeal of the BJP's Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, seen by many as a well-respected, effective leader. While this was a clear victory for the BJP, the party lost 30 seats from its 2003 showing, and the Congress doubled its strength, rising from 33 to 71 seats. ¶5. (SBU) However, observers believed that Chouhan's leadership appeal would not translate into votes for the BJP in the national elections, despite his intensive campaigning in every part of the state. Shravan Kumar Garg, an editor at Dainik Bhaskar, the leading Hindi newspaper in Madhya Pradesh, said that the BJP's electoral fortunes had peaked and had nowhere to go but down. Even the BJP's Organizing Secretary for the state, Anil Dave, noted despondently, "Now is not the time for the BJP. We failed to carry our message to the voters. We failed to tell them of our vision for the future." ¶6. (SBU) Observers project that the Congress in MP will repeat its modest success from the Assembly elections, gaining possibly three to seven Lok Sabha seats, mostly in the tribal areas along the southern and eastern borders of the state. Interlocutors posited various explanations for the gains. Some observers argued this may be due to the fact that these were traditional Congress-Party strongholds that voted for the BJP in the last national election out of frustration, but are now returning to the fold, while others credited the UPA's poverty alleviation programs and other programs that have directly assisted tribal populations. Yet others said that with both parties seen as lackluster in MP, victory belongs to the candidate in each district who best inspired voters and had the best campaign machine to get out the vote. Observers all commented that the Congress party lacked an effective state-wide machine, and many faulted the party's state chair, Suresh Pachouri, for passing over stronger candidates due to personal rivalries. A critic of the BJP government's performance, Dixit blamed the Congress Party's poor organization and weak candidates in many districts for its inability to effectively challenge the BJP. He quipped, "If the people had their way, the Congress would win. If the Congress had its way, the BJP would win." POVERTY DROVE ELECTION ISSUES: FOOD AND ENERGY -------------- - ¶7. (U) The second largest state geographically, MP is largely agrarian and over one-third of its land mass is forest-covered. It is one of the poorest states in India: 73 percent live in rural villages, but even in urban centers the poverty is profound. (Note: India defines poverty as earning less than 100 Rupees (2 USD) per day. End Note.) A recent study in the economic paper Mint said that 36.79 percent of those living in rural MP are poor (almost 17 million people) and the situation is even worse for urban dwellers -- 42.72 percent fall below the poverty line (six million people). (Note: Only Uttar Pradesh and Bihar fare worse in rural poverty. End Note.) The Economic Times reports that the average annual household income in the state, for 2007, was 74,727 rupees, (1500 USD),compared to the nation-wide average household income of 115,000 rupees (2300 USD),and only 46 percent of households are connected to paved roads. A 2008 study by the International Food Policy Research Institute revealed that Madhya Pradesh has one of the worst malnutrition problems in the world. Literacy is also low across the state: the 2001 census reported a state-wide literacy rate of 64.11 percent (literacy is defined as the ability to sign one's name),nearly equal to the national average, but in eight blocks (roughly 100 villages each),the literacy rate for women was below 35 percent, and as low as 15 percent in Karahal in the Sheopur district. Many vote by identifying the party symbol they wish to vote for as they cannot read the names of the candidates. MUMBAI 00000187 003.2 OF 004 ¶8. (SBU) State Congress General Secretary Rajeev Singh listed specific programs of the UPA administration to aid the poor and bring development to the state: the National Rural Employment Guarantee Program, the Farm Debt Waiver Program, free mid-day meals at schools, the rural roads program, and girl-child programs designed to offset the cost of raising a girl. (Note: The BJP claimed credit for this program in the state elections last fall. End Note.) Singh also claimed that the Congress has been able to capitalize on three other poverty alleviation programs: the central government's program to regularize cultivation rights for tribals and other forest dwellers, the UPA's efforts to improve the power supply through the U.S.-India Civil Nuclear Cooperation Initiative, and the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal program that spent 520 million dollars to build better dwellings for urban poor and provide potable water. The BJP's 5-term incumbent in Indore, Sumitra Mahajan, remarked that food, electricity and water were the prime concerns of her electorate. She blamed the Congress-led central government for failing to reign in double-digit inflation in food prices, maintaining that "The voters trust us to fix it when we get in office." She did not offer alternative policies, however. How voters credit or blame the parties for their policies is always difficult to discern. S.R. Mohanty, a senior Indian Administrative Service officer in the state, remarked that the bureaucracy in the state is seen by voters as the face of the BJP, thus whatever frustrations there are about government programs are blamed on the BJP. ADVANI VS SINGH -------------- ¶9. (SBU) Neither Prime Minister candidate received high approval ratings from our interlocutors, though for different reasons. The BJP's chief campaign strategy in the state was to argue that Prime Minister Singh is a weak leader compared to BJP prime ministerial candidate L.K. Advani. The BJP's Dave acknowledged that this approach misfired, as many voters remembered that the BJP - and Advani in particular - had struggled to project a strong image against terrorism when the BJP was in power from 1999-2004. Anil Chawla, a researcher with Hindustan Studies and Services, concurred, noting that some see Advani as tainted by the violence from the Babri Mosque demolition, and others see him as old and out of touch; some, even within his own party, reportedly see him as arrogant and unable to inspire cohesiveness within the BJP's own ranks. Further, Advani's Sindhi Brahmin heritage gained the party no significant caste-based support or loyalties. Chawla claimed that the BJP's usual partners do not want to deal with Advani, so they, too, have backed away from supporting the BJP's PM candidate. ¶10. (SBU) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was seen as more respected, though not necessarily more approachable. Sumeet Maheshwari, co-owner of Navbharat Group press said that voters viewed favorably the accomplishments of Singh's government and saw that in a crisis he made good decisions and was tough with Pakistan without risking war. Media interlocutors noted that the current PM is generally seen by voters as a kind, peaceful face that Indians, in MP at least, want representing them. They noted, however, that he does not connect well with the common voter. During his eight visits to MP during the campaign, Singh limited his talks to business groups, instead of mass rallies or interaction with common voters. Dixit observed that the PM is very intelligent and appeals to educated voters, but is often unable to connect with the masses. PEOPLE TO WATCH -------------- ¶11. (SBU) In an otherwise lackluster campaign, two candidates stood out: the Congress's Satyanarayan Patel, running against Sumitra Mahajan in Indore, and the BJP's Sushma Swaraj, running unopposed in Vidisha thanks to her Congress opponent's failure to properly file his candidacy papers. Shukla said Patel is seen as a very bright, able candidate; now 42, he has been involved in politics since he was 18 years old. Patel had previously been elected to the state Assembly from two MUMBAI 00000187 004.2 OF 004 constituencies included in the Indore Parliamentary seat, but lost in the fall 2008 Assembly elections when Congress put him on a ticket in a new, third district. While none of our interlocutors projected him to beat his five-time incumbent BJP opponent, Sumitra Mahajan, his career was frequently noted as worth following. When Congenoff encountered Patel on the campaign trail, Patel seemed well informed on the issues, was a good public speaker, and stayed energetic, despite the scorching heat. In discussion with both Mahajan and Patel, he was clearly the more articulate and informed candidate, but as Karansingh Pawar, himself a former MLA, noted, the common voter is often put off by intelligence and prefers politicians who speak at their level. ¶12. (U) Swaraj is a 57-year old former two-time Indian cabinet minister for Information and Broadcasting during the BJP-led governments in Delhi. She was Chief Minister of Delhi and currently serves in the Rajya Sabha, the upper house, representing Madhya Pradesh. She is a lawyer by training but has spent most of her life in politics, starting in Haryana, her home state. She was understandably confident of victory in Vidisha, with no Congress opponent, and campaigned in other states to help BJP candidates, concomitantly building her own base of support for the future. Observers posited that even if Congress had not failed in its efforts to contest this seat, Swaraj would have won, as the BJP has controlled the seat for the last six elections. THIRD FRONT A NON-ISSUE IN MP -------------- ¶13. (SBU) Though the Lok Sabha elections have historically been a two-party contest in MP, third parties made some inroads in the state elections last fall. Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) won seven seats in the Assembly, but is not anticipated to make an impact in the Parliamentary elections. Traditionally, the BSP has eaten into the Congress Party's vote banks, but Sanjay Shukla opined that business kingpins, looking for turf they could control, would be shifting support to BSP, cutting into the BJP vote bank as well. (Note: In contrast, Congress leader and candidate for the Indore seat, Satyanaran Patel, argued that business leaders and the intelligentsia, normally core BJP voters, like the steady, pro-growth leadership of Congress's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. End Note.) In the end, pundits felt that the BSP would gain in vote share, but not enough to win any seats. Uma Bharati, a former BJP Chief Minister of the state, had fielded her own party for the Assembly elections and won five seats, but is sitting out this election. ¶14. (SBU) Comment. While the final verdict of this suspenseful national election will be known only when the votes are counted on May 16, the consensus among pundits was that the Congress Party will gain three to seven seats in MP. The BJP is likely to retain their traditional urban seats of Indore, Bhopal and Jabalpur, while the swing seats are along the periphery of the state, in tribal areas traditionally seen as Congress bastions. The expectation that the Congress will pick up seats is credited to the merits of individual candidates especially in this current atmosphere where Congress fans and foes alike describe the current Congress state Chairman, Suresh Pachouri, as ineffective and disorganized. While party loyalty was seen as less of a factor in this election than the ability of individual candidates to turn out voters, in this economically challenged state, the poverty alleviation programs of Congress also inevitably played a role in winning back a few seats for Congress in the most economically depressed areas. Nonetheless, the BJP is likely to maintain its strong hold over most of the state. End Comment. FOLMSBEE