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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 CHENNAI 000126 
 
C O R R E C T E D COPY (ADDED PARA MARKING) 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KIRF IN PREL KDEM
SUBJECT: HONEST POLITICIAN FACES UPHILL FIGHT IN BANGALORE 
ELECTIONS 
 
REF:  A) CHENNAI 116 B) CHENNAI 025 C) 2008 CHENNAI 315 
 
CHENNAI 00000126  001.3 OF 003 
 
 
¶1.  (SBU) Summary:  During a recent trip to the south Indian state 
Karnataka, we followed a Congress party candidate as he campaigned 
through the streets of Bangalore.  The candidate's campaign events 
were modest in size and the reception he received varied based on 
the location's political leanings.  The candidate, a Christian, 
focused his campaign message on the importance of harmony between 
India's various religious communities.  The constituency is a 
favorable one for the Congress party, as it contains a high 
percentage of Christians and Muslims, two groups that historically 
have supported the party.  Political analysts and Congress party 
insiders, however, believe that the candidate's unwillingness to 
offer financial and material inducements to voters may doom his 
chances, especially in light of the profligate spending of 
candidates from the rival Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).  End 
summary. 
 
Lukewarm reception for Congress candidate on BJP turf 
---------------- 
 
¶2.  (SBU) We recently followed H.T. Sangliana, the Congress party 
candidate for one of Bangalore's four parliamentary seats, on the 
campaign trail.  Sangliana, a former police chief, has a reputation 
for moral rectitude.  A practicing Christian, Sangliana attended the 
2009 National Prayer Breakfast in Washington on February 5.  At his 
first stop, fire crackers, drums, and the chanting of Congress party 
workers announced the candidate's arrival.  Though Sangliana's 
campaign team tried hard to drum up local support in the 
BJP-friendly neighborhood the candidate was visiting, less than a 
dozen people turned out to greet the former police chief.  Sangliana 
was undeterred; he stood tall on the back of a jeep, waving at 
onlookers and community members who appeared uninterested and 
unimpressed by the procession.  One voter's rush to destroy and 
discard a flyer which she had just received from one of Sangliana's 
workers exemplified the BJP-heavy neighborhood's lack of support for 
the Congress party candidate. 
 
Congress fans enthused by talk of religious harmony, secularism 
---------------- 
 
¶3. (SBU) Fortunately for Sangliana, his next stop was a mixed-income 
neighborhood known for its pro-Congress stance.  The motorcade 
twisted and turned down roads lined with contrasting rows of modern 
high rise apartment buildings interspersed with makeshift shanties. 
Sangliana stopped in front of a building where a crowd of 
approximately sixty to seventy supporters gathered. Though the crowd 
was still quite small by Indian standards, the group of mostly lower 
income residents appeared quite receptive to the politician. 
Loudspeakers blared slogans like "Vote for Congress" and "Remember 
number four" (the four refers to the number assigned to Sangliana in 
the poll booths).  Sangliana's campaign workers mimicked the 
Congress party's trademark electoral symbol - the palm of a hand -- 
by raising the palms of their own hands in a sign of loyalty to the 
party.  Members of the crowd reciprocated with their own palms, as 
young Congress party workers clambered onto Sangliana's open jeep to 
garland him and take advantage of the photo-op. 
 
¶4. (SBU) After the garlanding, Sangliana addressed the crowd in the 
Kannada language.  Voters cheered Sangliana's vision of universal 
access to water and fewer traffic bottlenecks in the neighborhood. 
But Sangliana focused less on local issues than a broader message of 
religious unity and secularism in his impromptu speech.  Sangliana, 
a Christian himself, emphasized the need for religious tolerance 
among India's Christian, Hindu and Muslim communities by alluding to 
a popular old Bollywood movie which centered on three brothers, each 
of whom ended up adopting a different religion.  He pointed to 
attacks on religious minorities in Mangalore (ref C) as evidence of 
the ruling BJP's inability to unify Karnataka and said that 
Congress, as a secular party, is the only one capable of unifying 
 
CHENNAI 00000126  002.4 OF 003 
 
 
Karnataka and India as a wole. 
 
¶5. (SBU) Sangliana's campaign swing conclued with a public meeting in 
Muslim dominated neihborhood, where over two hundred party workers 
ad supporters gathered to hear various Congress part officials 
speak.  A local wrestler kicked off te event by saying that the 
attacks on minoritiesin Mangalore illustrate the effect of having 
theBJP in power (refs B and C).  He added that the situation would 
be aggravated should the BJP win in the national elections.  Fear 
that the BJP would prevail if the Muslim vote split between 
Sangliana and JDS candidate Ahmed Zameer reverberated throughout all 
of the speeches.  According to local contacts, Congress and the JDS 
have entered into a tacit understanding with Zameer appearing to 
have ceded to Sangliana. But Congress members fear that Zameer's 
supporters, many of whom are still actively campaigning on his 
behalf, could negatively impact Sangliana's chances (ref A).  The 
Congress speakers used the forum adress this problem by emphasizing 
the importance f Muslim unity. 
 
Too honest to win? 
--------------- 
 
¶6.  (SBU) While Sangliana's message of uniy and economic 
development seemed to resonate among his base, political observers 
in Karnataka do not rate Sangliana's chances of winning very high. 
A local journalist said that Sangliana's lack of financial 
resources, and his unwillingness to expand his financial network, 
would affect him negatively at the polls. According to another 
political analyst, Sangliana's honesty is the biggest stumbling 
block to his campaign.  He noted that political parties spend large 
sums of money to buy favors, such as food, clothing, and alcohol, as 
incentives to voters for their support (ref C).   He said that in 
the absence of the necessary funds to buy such gifts, Sangliana 
could lose a considerable number of votes, even from his core 
constituency of Congress party supporters.  Congress leader Roshen 
Baig said that BJP will capitalize on Sangliana's failure to provide 
the expected incentives.  He said that the BJP was already paying 
Christian voters in the constituency, a group that has historically 
backed Congress, in exchange for their support.  Loss of a 
substantial number of Christian voters would doom Sangliana's 
chances to win the seat. 
 
¶7. (SBU) Sangliana's lack of financial resources limits his capacity 
to reach the maximum amount of voters, says Baig.  While Baig 
refused to admit to buying votes himself, he did say that even the 
most righteous politicians must sometimes go against their 
principles in order to win.  He stated that Sangliana's 
unwillingness to understand this reality will hurt his prospects, as 
he simply cannot compete with the exorbitant sums of money that the 
BJP is infusing into its campaign.  Baig pointed to the three 
million dollars in cash recently found in a BJP supporter's 
residence and later seized by election commission officials, as 
evidence of the BJP's financial edge (ref C).  He added that he had 
tried to help Sangliana by putting him in touch with some of his 
contacts but Sangliana's "rigid stand" on campaign finance made it 
difficult for him to raise funds on his behalf. 
 
¶8.  (SBU) The BJP has a strong incentive to defeat Sangliana.  He 
rose to BJP fame in 2004, while a BJP member, as a "giant killer" 
for winning a Lok Sabha seat by upsetting senior Congress party 
leader and former Railways Minister C.K. Jaffer Sharief.  Sangliana 
voted in favor of U.S.-India civil nuclear cooperation in August 
2008, defying the party leadership, and the BJP expelled him. 
Shortly thereafter, Sangliana switched over to the rival Congress 
party, which put him up to contest for the Bangalore seat. 
 
Religion and money in Indian politics: 
Sangliana has one on his side, but not the other 
---------------- 
 
 
CHENNAI 00000126  003.2 OF 003 
 
 
¶9.  (SBU) Comment:  Sangliana's campaign for the Bangalore Central 
constituency is an example of how different factors compete in 
Indian politics.  In the case of Sangliana's constituency, religion 
and money are driving the contest.  Religion makes the constituency 
hospitable turf for Sangliana; Christians and Muslims, which have 
historically been key Congress supporters, make up over forty 
percent of the electorate.   But Sangliana refuses to play the money 
game, while his BJP opponent is spending freely on the incentives 
voters expect to see from their politicians.  It remains to be seen 
whether money trumps religion, but things are not looking up for 
Sangliana's efforts to win in this Congress-leaning constituency. 
End comment. 
 
SIMKIN