VZCZCXRO9007
RR RUEHAST RUEHBI RUEHCI RUEHLH RUEHPW
DE RUEHCG #0231 1850833
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 030833Z JUL 08
FM AMCONSUL CHENNAI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1737
RUEHNE/AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI 3176
RUCNCLS/ALL SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS CHENNAI 000231 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV KDEM IN
SUBJECT:  MAYAWATI GIVES HER PARTY'S NATIONAL SECRETARY THE BOOT 
 
REF: CHENNAI 192 
 
¶1. (U) Summary: General Secretary of the Bhujan Samaj Party (BSP) 
P.G.R. Sindhia was unceremoniously tossed from his office by party 
president and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on June 24. 
Sindhia's defenestration followed the party's dismal performance in 
recently concluded legislative assembly elections in Karnataka, 
Sindhia's home state (reftel).  According to media reports, Sindhia 
now hopes to travel to the United States to campaign among 
Indian-American voters for presumptive Democratic Presidential 
nominee Barack Obama.  Sindhia's position as a non-Dalit leading a 
largely Dalit party made him a somewhat anomolous figure, but his 
inability to deliver for the BSP on his home turf made him more of a 
liability than an asset for Mayawati.  End Summary. 
 
Mayawati expels Sindhia from the BSP 
------------------------------------ 
 
¶2. (U) Rajya Sabha member and the BSP's National General Secretary 
in charge of Karnataka Veer Singh announced on June 24 that he had, 
under Mayawati's instructions, removed Sindhia from all party posts. 
 The BSP's press release stated that Sindhia was "not able to work 
in coordination with old office-bearers of the party."   Underlining 
the secrecy and boldness of the purge, party workers removed 
overnight all the furniture from the office rented by Sindhia. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Sindhia blamed his removal on reports to Mayawati from her 
Karnataka observers that he lacked respect for Dalits.  Some of our 
political contacts in Karnataka attribute Sindhia's removal, 
however, to his demonstrated lack of a political base.  A 
Bangalore-based editor for a major newspaper told us Sindhia's 
campaigning for the BSP in the May legislative assembly elections 
was, at best, "fitful."  The BSP failed to win a single assembly 
seat.  In fact, the candidate in Sindhia's former district received 
a mere 2000 votes and therefore lost his deposit paid to secure a 
place on the ballot by failing to secure at least one-sixth of the 
votes cast, the ultimate humiliation for a political wannabe. 
 
Hints of cooperation with other parties? 
---------------------------------------- 
 
¶4. (SBU) The editor also observed that the removal of Sindhia -- a 
former Janata Dal Secular (JDS) member --may facilitate BSP-JDS 
cooperation in the state.  He noted that Sindhia's antipathy towards 
former Prime Minister and current JDS leader Deve Gowda and his 
family had precluded this possibility earlier.  (Comment:  Sindhia 
departed the JDS formally in December 2007, but was something of a 
dissident for a while.  His dissatisfaction with the JDS arose 
ostensibly because he was unhappy with his secular party's alliance 
with the BJP, but possibly because he was not given a state-level 
ministerial position in the JDS-BJP coalition government that ruled 
Karnataka until October/November 2007.  End Comment.)  One of Deve 
Gowda's sons told us that increased JDS cooperation with Congress 
and perhaps even the BSP was a possibility, but added quickly that 
"nothing is decided." 
 
Willing to lend a hand to Obama 
------------------------------- 
 
¶5. (SBU) Now bereft of a party, Sindhia told a press conference that 
he plans to use some of his free time to travel to the United States 
and campaign for Barack Obama.  (Note:  Sindhia told us in March of 
his interest in assisting in the Democratic Party's presidential 
campaign by helping the party reach out to Indian-American voters. 
End note.)  When we spoke with him after the press conference, 
however, he made clear that he was unsure about the the exact nature 
of his potential involvement in the Obama campaign. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶6. (SBU) Sindhia's high-level position in the BSP, as a non-Dalit 
leading a party of mainly Dalits, was somewhat anamolous, but his 
failure to deliver even a modicum of success on his home turf in 
Karnataka made him more of a liability than an asset for Mayawati. 
The effect on local politics is uncertain, especially since the BSP 
fared so poorly in the May elections.  Sindhia's removal eliminates 
one obstacle preventing closer JDS-BSP cooperation, but since the 
JDS is definitely moving closer to the Congress Party in Karnataka, 
achieving cooperation among all three parties would go against the 
grain of the national trend of the BSP's increasing opposition to 
Congress.  End Comment. 
 
HOPPER