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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 NEW DELHI 000756 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR SCA/INS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL PINR KDEM IN
SUBJECT: SUBJECT: BHARAT BALLOT 09: INDIA GOES TO THE 
POLLS, PHASE 1 
 
REF: BHARAT BALLOT 09 SERIES 
 
¶1.  Summary: (U) On April 16, Indian voters cast their 
ballots in 124 election districts across 17 states and 
territories in the first of five phases of parliamentary 
elections, thus marking the start of the biggest democratic 
exercise the world has ever seen.  Polling in the first round 
was generally peaceful and smooth.  The turnout appeared to 
vary from state to state but was in line with previous 
elections.  Votes will be counted and results announced on 
May 16 after all five phases of polling have been completed 
and 714 million voters have had a chance to cast their ballot 
to elect a new lower house of parliament and a new 
government.  End Summary. 
 
¶2. (U) Voters in 17 states and territories went to the polls 
in the first of five phases of India's national parliamentary 
elections.  The first phase comprised 124 of India's 543 
seats.  The total electorate in these constituencies is 158 
million; 1,715 candidates from 162 political parties are 
contesting for these seats.   Counting will take place and 
results announced on May 16 after the completion of all five 
phases of polling over the next month. 
 
¶3.  (U) The Election Commission has prohibited exit polls on 
grounds that they can be manipulated and could influence 
voter behavior in subsequent rounds.  It is not possible, 
therefore, to get a quick read on any trends or patterns in 
how voters cast their ballots today.  The Commission has not 
yet officially announced today's voter turnout but early 
reports suggest that turnout varied from very high in some 
areas (Northeast, Orissa) to tepid (some parts of Andhra 
Pradesh) but was generally in line with previous elections. 
 
¶4.  (U) The 124 parliamentary constituencies going to the 
polls in the first phase are located in the following 
states/territories): 
-- Assam (3 of 10 seats) 
-- all Northeast, other than Assam (7 seats) 
-- Chhattisgarh (all 11 seats) 
-- Uttar Pradesh (16 of 80 seats) 
-- Bihar (13 of 40 seats) 
-- Jharkhand (6 of 10 seats) 
-- Orissa (10 of 21 seats; concurrent state assembly 
elections) 
-- Andhra Pradesh (22 of 42 seats; concurrent state assembly 
elections) 
-- Maharashtra (13 of 48 seats) 
-- Kerala (all 20 seats) 
-- Jammu and Kashmir (1 out of 6 seats) 
-- Andaman and Nicobar; Lakshadweep (both seats) 
 
Peaceful Polls 
-------------- 
 
¶5.  (U) Considering that most of the constituencies going to 
the polls are located in some of the most violence prone 
parts of the country - the Northeast, the Maoists/Naxalite 
affected states in central-eastern India, and Jammu and 
Kashmir -- the first round of elections appears to have been 
remarkably peaceful.  There were a few scattered incidents of 
violence, mostly attributed to Maoist/Naxalite attempts to 
disrupt the process at some polling booths in the states of 
Jharkhand, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, and Orissa.  According to 
media reports 17 people were killed in over a dozen attacks 
by extremists at polling booths or against government 
personnel involved in managing the elections.  In the Indian 
context, this is a very low level of violence in an election 
exercise where passions, grievances and stakes can run high. 
 
 
Big Names Contestants 
--------------------- 
 
NEW DELHI 00000756  002 OF 004 
 
 
 
¶6.  (U) Some of the prominent personalities contesting during 
phase 1 include: GOI Ministers Lalu Prasad Yadav (Railways), 
Ram Vilas Paswan (Indian Chemicals/Fertilizers and Steel), 
Renuka Choudhary (Women and Child Development),  Vilas 
Muttemwar (Renewable Energy), Praful Patel (Aviation), 
E.Ahamed (External Affairs), S. Jaipal Reddy (Urban 
Development), D. Punandareswari (Human Resource Development); 
BJP heavyweight Murali Manohar Joshi; rising BJP star Yogi 
Adityanath; former BJP Minister Rudra Pratap Rudy; former UN 
Undersecretary Shashi Tharoor. 
 
Uttar Pradesh 
------------- 
 
¶7.  (U) Uttar Pradesh's 16 eastern constituencies, also known 
as Purvanchal, went to the polls in the first phase of 
India's parliamentary elections.  (Note:  Uttar Pradesh, a 
poor, largely rural state of 185 million, holds the largest 
number of Lok Sabha seats (eighty) and will be crucial to any 
coalition hoping to come to power in New Delhi. End Note.) 
There were no reports of violence during voting in the 
region, and voter turnout seemed to be on par with past 
Indian parliamentary elections (55-65 percent).  Although no 
single party seems poised to sweep the region, India's two 
national parties -- the Congress Party and the Bharatiya 
Janata Party (BJP) -- could possibly pick up seats in the 
area at the expense of regional parties, the Bahujan Samaj 
Party (BSP) and the Samajwadi Party (SP). 
 
Kerala 
------ 
 
¶8.  (U) Voters cast their ballots in all 20 parliamentary 
seats of Kerala today.  The ruling Communist Left Democratic 
Alliance which wiped out the Congress Party in 2004 is 
playing defense against a resurgent Congress Party, which may 
make significant gains in the state.  The left parties are 
weighed down by infighting, scandal and voter disenchantment. 
 The polling in the state on April 16 was peaceful.  Heat and 
humidity is reported to have depressed turnout statewide to 
56 percent, down from the usually high 65 plus percent that 
occurs in Kerala. 
 
Andhra Pradesh 
-------------- 
 
¶9.  (U) In Andhra Pradesh (AP), polling for the concurrent 
2009 parliamentary and state assembly elections took place 
today in 22 parliamentary and 154 state Assembly 
constituencies across 10 districts in Telangana and three 
districts in North Coastal Andhra.  The remaining 
parliamentary and state assembly contests in 20 parliamentary 
election districts will take place on April 23.  Polling was 
peaceful, in part because Andhra Pradesh instituted elaborate 
security arrangements to ensure that violence by Naxalite or 
other groups did not disrupt voting.  More than 60,000 police 
and paramilitary forces were deployed to maintain law and 
order around 36,061 polling stations, of which 12,384 were 
designated at sensitive, hypersensitive, extremist affected, 
or troublesome. 
 
¶10.  (U) Early news reports noted that as many as 30 million 
people could turn out to exercise their franchise in the 
state. However, media contacts indicate that there was only a 
13-15 percent turnout in the first 3 hours and electronic 
media reports only a 50 percent turnout by the end of the 
day. Spot reporting bears this out and highlights how turnout 
varied greatly from neighborhood to neighborhood. At the 
polling station in Secunderabad's affluent West Maredapally 
area, turnout was significantly higher than in previous years 
as whole families disembarked from Honda Civics to vote. 
Conversely, the streets of Hyderabad's predominantly Muslim 
 
NEW DELHI 00000756  003 OF 004 
 
 
Old City were empty except for police, as residents avoided 
polling stations fearing a repeat of the communal violence 
that erupted during the last election. At the Bharat Heavy 
Electricals Ltd. (BHEL) enclave on the northern edge of 
Hyderabad, locals said that many residents had taken 
advantage of the voting to depart on holiday over the long 
weekend.  Local officials noted that turnout in rural 
Sangareddy district was higher than previous elections. They 
attributed this to effective "get-out-the-vote" television 
campaigns and the efforts of the Election Commission. 
However, the issues of rural development and irrigation were 
the primary reasons cited by most voters for turning out to 
vote. 
 
¶11.  (U) While overall it seems that voting was conducted in 
an orderly manner (wait times were less than 30 minutes), 
there were sporadic complaints and te State Election Officer 
announced that 17 voting stations in Mahbubnagar would be 
re-polled.  There were several reports of the failure of 
voting machines and some complaints of aspiring voters to 
appear on the lists.  Turnout of the much hyped 'youth vote' 
may have been impacted by the timing of the polls to coincide 
with university examinations. 
 
Orissa 
------ 
 
¶12. (U) Voters in 10 of Orissa's 21 parliamentary districts 
went to the polls on April 16.  The balance of the state will 
go the polls in the second phase on April 23.  Orissa is also 
concurrently holding elections to it state legislature, the 
five year term of which has run out.  Most parliamentary 
constituencies in the state are seeing three-cornered 
contests between the Congress Party, the BJP and Naveen 
Patnaik's Biju Janata Dal, which dramatically broke away 
recently from the BJP after a 10-year alliance.  One of the 
seats in contention includes Kandhamal, the site of violence 
against Christians during the past year.  Reports are that 
turn out was high despite the heat and recent communal 
tension.  The polling was peaceful except for reported 
Maoists raids on four polling stations where extremists set 
fire to voting machines and a vehicle in Malkangiri and 
Sundargarh districts. 
 
Maharashtra 
----------- 
 
¶13. (U) Polling for 13 out of Maharashtra's total 48 seats 
also occurred today.  Ten of the Maharashtra seats are in the 
eastern region of Vidarbha.  Polling was peaceful, 
notwithstanding one reported attempt by Maoists/Naxalites to 
disrupt the election.  Prominent local candidates and caste 
politics will be factors in the elections in the Vidarbha 
region.  Dalits, a significant proportion of voters in 
Vidarbha, are likely to split their votes among candidates 
from all the major contesting parties, including the Congress 
Party, BJP, Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party, and Maharashtra's 
Republican Party of India. 
 
¶14. (U) In the Gadchiroli district of Vidarbha, police claim 
to have foiled an attempted Maoist attack on a village 
polling place. District Superintendent of Police Rajesh 
Pradhan told the press that police opened fire and chased the 
insurgents back into the jungle. There were no casualties but 
the attackers reportedly left behind weapons and explosives. 
Earlier this month Maoist extremists ambushed a police party 
in the densely forested district of Gadchiroli, killing 15. 
(Note: The tribal population is nearly 39 percent, more than 
double the state average of 17 percent. End Note.) 
 
Naxalite Activity Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
 
 
NEW DELHI 00000756  004 OF 004 
 
 
¶15. (U) Polling for all 11 parliamentary seats of 
Chhattisgarh took place on April 16.  The BJP, which returned 
to power under Chief Minister Raman Singh less than six 
months ago, hopes to put in a strong performance. Despite the 
attacks on a few polling places, the state elections were 
conducted safely, and turn-out was high (70.53 percent across 
the state, roughly 6.4 million voters).  There were reports 
of violence at six polling sites in the Bastar district of 
southern Chhattisgarh shortly after the polls opened at 7 am. 
(Note: The southern Chhattisgarh constituency of Bastar 
comprises the two, large, mineral-rich districts of Bastar 
and Dantewada, which is the epicenter of the state's Naxalite 
insurgency. The constituency is largely tribal, rural, and 
extremely poor and underdeveloped.  End Note.)  Chhattisgarh 
Additional Director General of Police Girdhari Nayak told the 
press, "The (Maoist) rebels fired at six booths in Dantewada 
and Narayanpur districts but no one was injured."  The 
voters, reportedly 20 tribals, panicked and ran away. 
Hindustan Times reporter Ejaz Kaiser told Congenoff he has 
unconfirmed reports of four polling staff killed in 
Chhattisgarh when their vehicle hit a land mine on the way to 
the polls in the early morning.  Kaiser is also working to 
confirm reports of two security police injured and the 
looting of one electronic voting machine. 
 
¶16.  (U) In Jharkhand, one of the least developed and most 
Naxalite-affected states of India, there were reports of 
seven Border Security Force personnel killed in a single 
attack when extremists detonated a land mine over a bus that 
was transporting paramilitary soldiers to an election center. 
 There were two gun battles between security forces and 
Maoists in Khuti and Palamau districts, disrupting voting in 
both places, police spokesman K.N. Pradhan said. 
 
¶17.  (U) In Bihar, a crucial electoral state where the 
Congress Party and its erstwhile allies Lalu Prasad Yadav and 
Ram Vilas Paswan are contesting, polling took place for 13 of 
the states 40 seats.  BJP ally Nitish Kumar is reported to be 
well positioned to make major gains in the state.  There were 
reports that Lalu Prasad Yadav is facing a tough battle for 
his own seat, thus forcing him to devote attention to his own 
constituency and limiting his ability to canvas for his party 
in other parts of the state.  According to a media report, 
Maoists/Naxalites were responsible for killing one policeman 
and a Home Guard when they opened fire at a polling station 
in Bankebazaar in Gaya district, about 130 km from the state 
capital Patna.  They also looted an electronic voting machine 
and four rifles. 
 
Assam, Northeast and Jammu and Kashmir 
-------------------------------------- 
 
¶18.  (U) Polling was peaceful and smooth.  Turnout was 
generally high.  There were not reported incident of violence 
in these states which have had a history of terrorist related 
violence, with many groups holding deep grievances against 
the Indian state. 
BURLEIGH