CONGRESS VERSUS MODZILLA IN GUJARAT

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 06 MUMBAI 000190 SENSITIVE SIPDIS DRL FOR MORALES E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PREL PINR KDEM PTER KIRF IN SUBJECT: CONGRESS VERSUS MODZILLA IN GUJARAT REF: BHARAT BALLOT SERIES MUMBAI 00000190 001.2 OF 006 ¶1. (U) Sensitive But Unclassified. Please treat accordingly. ¶2. (SBU) Summary: As Gujarat went to the polls on April 30, observers and pundits expect that the Bharatiya Janata Party, led by Gujarat's Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, would likely increase the size of its Parliamentary representation by several seats. In this campaign, Modi has eschewed the politics of right-wing nationalism and religious conservatism, and embraced the mantra of development as his platform, to the dismay of his more right-wing supporters. Modi has also pursued a quiet rapprochement with what he considers "moderate" Muslims, mostly Gujarat's Shia business communities. Even critics and detractors concede that Modi has delivered a more efficient administration, a less corrupt state government, impressive rural progress and visible infrastructure development. With a poorly-organized and demoralized Congress, many saw this election as a referendum on Modi's leadership. Should the BJP win more seats, and should Modi succeed in reaching out to minority communities in the state, pundits predicted that Modi could stake a more credible claim to the party's leadership after current party leader L.K. Advani leaves the scene. End Summary. Gujarat Basics: The Shape of Votes to Come -------------- ¶3. (SBU) With a population of 53 million, Gujarat has 26 parliamentary seats. In the previous parliamentary elections in 2004, the BJP won 14 seats, while the Congress took 12. Gujarat is one of India's most developed states, and its relatively good infrastructure and business-friendly investment climate have made Gujarat a top destination in India for foreign and domestic investments. The state has averaged over 10 percent growth since 2002. Textiles, chemicals, auto-parts, agro-processing and diamond polishing are the top industries. The country's largest petrochemical complexes and petroleum refineries are located in Gujarat. Sixty seven percent of the total food grain port traffic in India passes through Kandla port, located in the north of Gujarat. Mundra, India's largest private port, is under development in the state. ¶4. (SBU) In Gujarat, Congress and BJP candidates are the serious contenders in the majority of the state's Parliamentary seats. The recent redistricting of constituencies and the absence of a major issue has made the treacherous art of reading the Indian voter even more difficult. A district-by-district analysis with a diverse set of analysts, pundits and poll watchers yielded a wide range of estimates, but all agreed that the BJP would likely gain up to six seats in the election. Virtually no regional, local or third front parties are expected to win or gain significant traction, although they will take away votes from the Congress in some key races, as they did in the December 2007 state assembly elections. Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is expected to garner one to two percent of the votes, mostly from the Dalit community, and a small number of voters will likely vote for the Nationalist Congress Party, both taking away from the Congress vote. (Note: Political analysts argue that the BSP attracted enough votes away from the Congress in the 2007 elections to give victories to BJP candidates in close to 17 seats. End Note.) ¶5. (SBU) Previous elections have shown a strong urban/rural voter divide, with middle and upper middle class urban voters showing a strong preference for the BJP throughout Gujarat. In addition, "non-Gujaratis" now constitute almost 20% of the population of urban centers like Ahmedabad. These migrants from MUMBAI 00000190 002.2 OF 006 states like Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Orissa tend to vote even more heavily in favor of the BJP. The recent delimitation has caused more seats to become urban. As a result, there is a consensus that all six urban seats will go to the BJP (two in Ahmedabad, and one each in Gandhinagar, Vadodara, Surat and Rajkot). Interlocutors told Congenoff that that a higher voter turnout will help BJP candidates in the closest races. To ensure better voter turnout, the BJP implemented a "micro-booth planning" strategy. Every party functionary, from the lowest worker to the chief minister, was charged with ensuring that a group of 20-30 households made it to the polling booths. The reported voter turn-out of 50 percent (versus 45 percent in the previous parliamentary elections) suggests that this grass-roots strategy had some impact. The Issues: It's Congress Versus Modi -------------- ¶6. (SBU) In Gujarat, as elsewhere, the election campaigns are notable for the lack of defining issues. As Congenoff toured Gujarat on April 27-30, however, conversation focused on the dominance of Gujarat's powerful Chief Minister, Narendra Modi. Instead of a direct contest between the Congress and the BJP, interlocutors proposed that the elections were more aptly described as a contest between the Congress and Modi. Modi has consistently kept the Congress on the defensive; his proactive approach to governance -- some say autocratic -- has sometimes alienated followers and groups, but has largely endeared him to the majority of Gujarati who are eager for development and growth, and who admire a strong regional leader. Despite the controversy from the 2002 riots, many major business leaders, such as Ratan Tata, Sunil Mittal, Mukesh Ambani, and the Birlas, have publicly endorsed Modi as their preferred candidate for Prime Minister. ¶7. (SBU) After the 2007 assembly elections, Modi fired and replaced several previous state ministers who were perceived as corrupt or underperforming, although critics say political calculations played a role. Modi supporters claim that the Congress has consistently attempted to lure these former BJP leaders into its fold with promises of a political payoff. For the 2009 Parliamentary elections, the national BJP leadership gave free reign to Modi to select candidates in Gujarat. Modi personally chose 23 of the 26 BJP candidates; perhaps by design, none have reputations beyond Gujarat, and many are relative newcomers to state politics. As always, complex caste, political and loyalty equations came into play. Modi replaced some sitting BJP MPs with political novices and some long-term loyalists were side-lined in favor of candidates who had switched from the Congress the day before. A few candidates have controversial, tainted pasts -- a common theme for the candidates of many parties throughout the country -- and are under investigation for irregular activities. Setting a high bar, Modi has assigned each sitting BJP state legislator to outperform the previous voting in their respective constituency. (Note: Depending on the constituency, six or seven legislative districts make up a parliamentary district. End Note.) ¶8. (SBU) Modi has worked to capitalize on dissatisfaction in Gujarat with the policies of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA),framing the BJP's battle as a "center vs. state" contest. Pinki Dalal of the "Mumbai Samachar," a Gujarati language newspaper in Mumbai, told Congenoff that a central government-mandated rise in the support price for cotton, meant to help farmers in Maharashtra, has negatively impacted the textile industry in Gujarat, especially Surat, a major industrial city in south Gujarat. Higher input costs have made textile makers in Surat less competitive in global markets. In MUMBAI 00000190 003.2 OF 006 addition, she continued, the loss of an estimated 400,000 jobs in the diamond industry because of the global economic recession, also principally in and around Surat, and the subsequent lack of any state or central government support or retraining for the unemployed workers has been a source of simmering anger that is a negative for both the Congress and the BJP. Many of the laid-off workers are from one region of western Gujarat, Saurashtra, and they have returned home to their traditional occupation of farming. The issue of marginally employed, former diamond industry workers has spilled over into the seven parliamentary seats in Saurashtra. Gordhan Zapadia, a BJP rebel attempting to tap this latent discontent, has formed a splinter party and fielded candidates in 16 parliamentary districts. However, this party is not expected to win any seats, and at the most will split-off votes from the BJP in one district (Bhavnagar). (Note: Zapadia gained notoriety as the state's Home Minister responsible for security during the 2002 anti-Muslim riots, but has since rebelled against Modi. End Note.) ¶9. (SBU) The Congress and the BJP for their own reasons have avoided mentioning the 2002 riots in the election. A common refrain amongst almost all Gujaratis is that the state has "moved on" since the riots, and that people -- especially outsiders -- should confine the riots to an aberration in history. Modi's popularity -- and the widespread, latent support among Gujarati Hindus for the riots -- has made the raising of the 2002 violence an unpopular political issue. Both BJP and Congress sympathizers agreed that attacking Modi on this front only served to galvanize his base and lionize him as a martyr. The Congress avoided this issue during the December 2007 assembly elections precisely to avoid alienating Hindu voters who might otherwise be persuaded to vote for the Congress. The news that the Supreme Court would fast-track 2002 cases, granting sweeping powers to its Special Investigation Team (SIT),broke just two days before the elections, but failed to damage Modi. Congress Leadership Flies In, Flies Out -------------- ¶10. (SBU) According to observers, the Congress Party in Gujarat suffers from a lack of grass-roots organization and visible leaders - and a credible formula for building support through an interlocking web of caste and community groups. Siddharth Patel, the son of a former chief minister, was recently appointed as the party's state chief to attract the Patel lobby, a dominant caste in Gujarat. However, the vocal and powerful Patels, who are also divided by sub-castes, find the Congress unappealing due to the dominance within the party of other rival castes. Amit Dholakia, a political science professor in Baroda, told Congenoff, "Congress is demoralized in Gujarat. They have not won for 10 years." As a result, Congress is dependent on national leaders like Sonia and Rahul Gandhi to fly in from New Delhi to draw in crowds at Congress campaign rallies. Harshad Dalal, a prominent maker of Indian cigarettes in Anand, a traditional Congress stronghold, told Congenoffs that he plans to throw his weight behind the Congress, as his family has been Congress supporters for three generations. Nonetheless, he said, "the BJP should be the ruling party in Gujarat and Narendra Modi should be the chief minister. He (Modi) has done a good job." Observers expect that Congress is likely to retain at least eight of its existing twelve parliamentary seats in Gujarat. Union ministers Shankarsinh Vaghela and Dinshaw Patel are expected to win their seats. The BJP Banks on Development and Rural Growth -------------- MUMBAI 00000190 004.2 OF 006 ¶11. Even critics and detractors concede that Modi, for all his many faults, has delivered a more efficient administration, a less corrupt state government, impressive rural progress and visible infrastructure development. (Comment: While Modi gets the credit for the implementation of many economic development programs, most were already in place or in motion before the BJP came to power. End Comment.) Modi has prioritized development with almost religious zeal. Gujarat has successfully applied a private-public partnership model -- the BOT (Build - Operate - Transfer) for infrastructure development. Gujarat has also made significant strides to address rural poverty. As a semi-arid region, recent good monsoons and investment in large-scale irrigation projects have brought water to parched farms. Electricity is now available in almost every village of Gujarat. During the `Krushi Mahotsav' program, approximately a 100,000 government officials, including the chief minister, state officials, and agricultural scientists, stayed in rural areas to demonstrate new farming technologies. The Modi government is now turning to address issues of health, education and social welfare, where Gujarat's performance has been mediocre at best. Several contacts mentioned the "Beti Bachao" ("Save Your Daughter") program to address the stubborn problem of female feticide in the state, which has led to one of the most lop-sided male/female ratios in the country. The Modi government has enlisted the help of the religious community to spread awareness of the girl-child ratio at the grass-roots level. This program is augmented by "Mamta Diwas" a program for pre-natal care. The state government provides free delivery services, school fees and cash incentives for female babies. Muslims for Modi? -------------- ¶12. (SBU) In this election, Modi has largely eschewed the politics of right-wing nationalism and religious conservatism, and embraced the mantra of development as his platform, to the dismay of his more right-wing supporters. According to Kuntal Sanghvi of the BJP, "The VHP and the RSS are not taking keen interest (in the elections)." Some of this new tone is aimed at securing the support of the BJP's national allies in other states who would be alarmed by anti-Muslim rhetoric. However, over the past few years, Modi has quietly courted the support of some Muslim leaders in the state, hoping to build bridges with "moderate" Muslim communities. Modi recently appointed Shabbirhussain Shekhadam Khandwawala, a Muslim, as the Director General of Police, Gujarat's top cop. Retired Additional Director General of Police, Abdullah Ibrahim Saiyed, who had a brush with rioting mobs in the 2002 post-Godhra violence in Ahmedabad, recently joined the BJP and campaigned in a constituency that has a sizeable number of Muslim voters. Claiming to be tired of being used as a vote bank and skeptical that the Congress has their best interests at heart, a few Muslim workers from Congress and some prominent citizens are either coming out in support of Modi or joining the BJP. Recently, 200 Congress members from the minority community in Vadodara and Chhota Udaipur walked into the BJP fold. Bharat Desai, Resident Editor of the Times of India in Ahemdabad told Congenoff, "The Imam of Ahmedabad is with Modi." ¶13. (SBU) Sajjad Hira, president of "Gujarat BJP Minority Morcha" told Congenoff that he expects 20 percent of all Muslims to vote for the BJP. A post-poll study of the 2004 elections conducted by the National Election Studies project of the Center for the Study of Developing Societies found that this claim may have some validity. While seven percent of Muslims throughout India voted for the BJP, the study found that fully 17 percent of Muslims in Gujarat voted for the BJP in 2004, just two years after the riots. This trend is aided by the diversity of MUMBAI 00000190 005.2 OF 006 Gujarat's Muslim communities, many of which are trading communities that converted to Shia Islam en masses several centuries ago. Entrepreneurial instincts ensures that these groups -- such as the Bohras, Memons, and Khojas -- are more prosperous and ambitious than Muslim communities elsewhere in India, but are also particularly attracted to appeals to increased prosperity rather than Islamic solidarity. Modi has largely approached these "moderate" Muslim communities and ignored the poorer, less business-minded Sunni communities, according to Rajendra Joshi, founder of an NGO that focuses on the urban poor. "Muslims in Ahmedabad are mostly Sunni and they will vote for Congress." Gani Qureshi, a state executive member and a senior Muslim leader of the BJP, told Congenoff that Modi's development approach -- "a rising tide lifts all boats" -- will increasingly endear him to many Muslims. Advani Fails to Generate Enthusiasm -------------- ¶14. (SBU) L.K. Advani, the leader of the opposition BJP party in Parliament, is expected to win his seat from Gandhinagar, just outside of Ahmedabad, albeit with a lower margin. Interlocutors had a low opinion of Advani, and contacts in the conservative business community - all Modi supporters - expressed hope that Manmohan Singh would continue as Prime Minister in New Delhi. While campaigning in Gandhinagar, Advani has tried to raise the issue of illicit fund outflows (black money),accusing the Congress of ignoring the issue and promising to bring back money stashed by Indians in tax-havens like Switzerland and Lichtenstein. (Note: Global Financial Integrity (GFI) based in D.C. estimates outflows from India to be around $25 billion per year. GFI ranks India fifth in the list of 160 developing countries suffering from illegal outflows. The matter has taken on urgency after the G20 adopted a tougher posture against tax havens and Swiss authorities expressed willingness to cooperate. India is part of the task force constituted by the G20. End Note.) This campaign focus reportedly disappointed Gandhinagar residents, who hoped he would talk about local, instead of national, issues. A Referendum on Modi? -------------- ¶15. (SBU) Comment: Having been handed full authority for the Parliamentary elections in Gujarat, the outcome is seen by many as a referendum on Modi's leadership potential. Modi must ensure the gain of several seats in the state, and prove that he can reach out to minority communities - especially Muslims - if he expects to rise from being a strong regional leader to a national one. Good governance and stronger anti-terror rhetoric has proven to be a heady attraction for the majority in Gujarat, but his appeal beyond the conservative and entrepreneurial Gujaratis is still untested. A charismatic speaker, Modi demonstrated his capability to reach voters beyond his home state when he successfully campaigned for the BJP in the 2008 state elections, drawing major crowds at election rallies in Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh. He has not had as much luck campaigning in the state of Maharashtra, outside of Mumbai. However, it is not clear that leaders from other parties can connect with the masses across the entire length and breadth of this diverse-in-the-extreme country. Several media contacts referred to this election as a "semi-final," with the "final" as a showdown between the presumed Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Modi for Prime Minister, perhaps as soon as the next mid-term elections. Critics say Modi is autocratic and vindictive, and unable to build a consensus, a skill extremely important in India's coalition politics. Modi himself publicly and often dismisses talk of going to Delhi, saying he is MUMBAI 00000190 006.2 OF 006 committed to serving in Gujarat. But after Advani, Modi is odds on favorite as the BJP leader for the "finals." There is no one else in the BJP who comes close to matching him in star power. End Comment. FOLMSBEE