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Viewing cable 09CHENNAI144, BHARAT BALLOT O9: CASH FOR VOTES IN SOUTH INDIA
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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin

09CHENNAI144 2009-05-13 05:05 2011-03-16 00:12 CONFIDENTIAL Consulate Chennai

VZCZCXRO3824
OO RUEHBI RUEHCI RUEHDBU RUEHLH RUEHNEH RUEHPW
DE RUEHCG #0144/01 1330511
ZNY CCCCC ZZH ZDS NOT DELIVERED
O 130511Z MAY 09
FM AMCONSUL CHENNAI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 2262
INFO RUCNCLS/ALL SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA COLLECTIVE
RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 0237
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON 0218
RUEHOT/AMEMBASSY OTTAWA 0225
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS 0150
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO 0152
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RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
RUEIDN/DNI WASHINGTON DC
Currently released so far... RHHMUNA/HQ USPACOM HONOLULU HI
5574 / 251,287 RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHDC
RHMFISS/HQ USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL
Articles

Brazil C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 CHENNAI 000144

Sri Lanka
United Kingdom SIPDIS
Sweden E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/13/2019
Editorial TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM KDEM IN
United States SUBJECT: BHARAT BALLOT O9: CASH FOR VOTES IN SOUTH INDIA
Latin America
CHENNAI 00000144 001.2 OF 004
Egypt
Yemen
Jordan Classified By: Acting Principal Officer J. Frederick Kaplan for reasons 1.4 (B,
D)
Refs: A) Chennai 011 B) 2007 Chennai 337
Browse latest releases
2010/11 2010/12 2011/01 ¶1. (C) Summary: Bribes from political parties to voters, in the form of cash,
goods, or services, are a regular feature of elections in South India. Poor
2011/02 2011/03 voters expect bribes from political candidates, and candidates find various ways
to satisfy voter expectations. From paying to dig a community well to slipping
Browse by creation date cash into an envelope delivered inside the morning newspaper, politicians and
their operatives admitted to violating election rules to influence voters. The
66 72 73 75 79 86 88 89 money to pay the bribes comes from the proceeds of fundraising, which often
90 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 crosses into political corruption. Although the precise impact of bribery on
07 08 09 10 voter behavior is hard to measure, it no doubt swings at least some elections,
especially the close races. End summary.
Browse by origin ¶2. (C) The subject of politicians bribing voters, with either cash or gifts,
was a recurring theme in the course of covering the 2009 election campaigns in
A B C D F G H I South India. Wherever we went, journalists, politicians, and voters spoke of the
J K L M N O P Q bribes as a commonly accepted fact of the election process. Political insiders,
R S T U V W Y Z and in some instances candidates themselves, admitted to us that candidates
regularly violate India's election rules in the course of campaigning for
office. This cable examines methods by which political parties bribe voters and
Browse by tag how those bribes affect elections in India.
A B C D E F G H
Poor voters expect cash
I J K L M N O P ---------
Q R S T U V W X
Y Z ¶3. (SBU) In visits to slums in Chennai and Hyderabad we learned that poor urban
voters expect political parties to pay come election time. A DMK political
Browse by classification strategist told us slums are critical to a campaign because their population
density and poverty allows them to be more ""easily mobilized"" by bribes.
CONFIDENTIAL Representatives of an NGO that works in Chennai's slums told us that the two main
political parties in Tamil Nadu -- the DMK and AIADMK - regularly bribe voters.
CONFIDENTIAL//NOFORN They described a sophisticated operation used to distribute the cash. According
SECRET to an NGO representative, in the weeks before the elections, ""agents of the
SECRET//NOFORN parties come to the neighborhood with cash carried in rice sacks. They have
UNCLASSIFIED copies of the voter lists and they distribute the money based on who is on the
list."" The agents come in the middle of the night, ""between two and four in
UNCLASSIFIED//FOR the morning, when the Election Commission is asleep."" A neighborhood resident
OFFICIAL USE ONLY confirmed this version of events, noting that in the 2004 election each family
got 500 rupees for their vote. (Note: The residents of this slum reported that
Community resources they earned around 4000 rupees a month working as day laborers. End note.) In a
Hyderabad slum voters we talked with three weeks before voting told us that they
Follow us on Twitter were expecting candidates' representatives to pay them a visit soon. ""We'll see
what they offer, and then we'll decide,"" said one man who spoke for the group.
Check our Reddit
Twitter this ¶4. (C) Rural voters also expect candidates to deliver goods in exchange for
Digg this page votes. Home Minister P. Chidambaram's son, Karti Chidambaram, who is managing
Contact us on IRC his father's campaign for the Lok Sabha seat from Sivaganga, Tamil Nadu, told us
that ""every village leader asks for two things: some money for the local temple
courage is contagious and a community hall."" Chidambaram went on to say that it is impossible to
fulfill every such request, but that he does give ""a few sops"" to villages that

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might be on the fence about supporting his father. He specifically denied paying
cash for votes, but not because of any moral objection to doing so. According to
Chidambaram, he does not pay cash for votes in his rural constituency because it
is impossible to distribute the money effectively when the villages are spread so
far apart. But the President of the Tamil Nadu Youth Congress told us that he
had just visited Chidambaram and said, ""Karti is doing a good job in Sivaganga.
He is distributing some money to the people, which his father won't do.""

Member of Parliament admits to bribing constituents

---------
¶5. (C) Assaduddin Owaisi, a sitting Member of Parliament and leader of the
Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) party, was surprisingly candid. Owaisi
explained to us the ins-and-outs of campaigning over a late dinner after spending
a long day on the trail. He said that
CHENNAI 00000144 002 OF 004
during the campaign he tries to cover every street in his urban constituency in
Hyderabad's Old City, visiting people at their homes and businesses. As he walks
the neighborhood, he said, people regularly appeal to him for small favors. One
community's leaders asked Owaisi that day to dig them a well. ""So I sent one of
my party men back later in the day,"" he explained, ""to give them 25,000 rupees
(approximately 500 USD)."" Owaisi emphasized that he does not give cash directly
to voters, but rather funds worthy requests: ""If they want a well, I give them
the money, but make sure they use it for the well."" On the same day, he also
told us that he had paid 35,000 rupees (700 USD) to pay for the marriage of an
orphaned girl. Owaisi contrasted his practice of funding projects for the
community's benefit with the Congress and Telugu Desam parties, which Owaisi said
pay money to individual voters.
¶6. (C) We asked Owaisi point blank whether it was against the law for him to
pay for the well and the marriage. Owaisi laughed and said, ""Of course, but
that's the great thing about democracy."" He went on to describe the legal
spending limit of 2.5 million rupees (50,000 USD) as ""a joke,"" noting that he
would spend 2.5 million rupees on ""polling day alone.""
Karunanidhi's son runs for parliament
---------
¶7. (C) On a recent trip to Madurai in southern Tamil Nadu virtually every
conversation centered on the parliamentary candidacy of M.K. Azhagiri, son of the
M.K. Karunanidhi, Tamil Nadu's Chief Minister and head of the DMK party.
Azhagiri's control of the DMK's south Tamil Nadu operation has earned him a
reputation for political thuggery. He was recently acquitted in the case of the
2003 murder of one of his political rivals, though critics argued that the trial,
held in Tamil Nadu, could not be impartial with Azhagiri's father as the state's
Chief Minister. In 2007, Azhagiri's supporters burned down a newspaper office in
Madurai, killing three people, after the paper published a poll that Azhagiri was
a distant second choice to his brother among DMK supporters as successor to
Karunanidhi (ref B).
By-election sets the stage
---------
¶8. (C) After long relying on political muscle to enforce his will in Madurai,
Azhagiri has added money to his arsenal and is using it to a degree previously
unseen in Tamil Nadu. Azhagiri's approach debuted in the January assembly
by-election held in Thirumangalam near Madurai, which he managed for the DMK.
This race was marked by unprecedented bribes to voters (ref A). M. Patturajan,
the former Mayor of Madurai and a confidant of Azhagiri, told us that ""it is no
secret at all, Azhagiri paid 5,000 rupees (approximately USD 100) per voter in
Thirumangalam."" S. Kannan, a mid-level Congress party official in Madurai, told
us ""the 5,000 rupees per voter in Thirumangalam changed everything,"" noting
that previous bribes to voters had topped out at 500 rupees. S. Annamalai,
Madurai editor of The Hindu, also confirmed the 5,000 rupee figure, telling us
that all of his employees who live in Thirumangalam received the money.
Can I get another morning paper?
---------
¶9. (C) The Thirumangalam campaign that Azhagiri ran for the DMK was notable for
how the money was distributed, in addition to the amount distributed. Rather
than using the traditional practice of handing cash to voters in the middle of
the night, in Thirumangalam the DMK distributed money to every person on the
voting roll in envelopes inserted in their morning newspapers. In addition to
the money, the envelopes contained the DMK ""voting slip"" which instructed the
recipient for whom they should vote. Annamalai pointed out that distributing the
money with the newspapers forced everyone to receive the bribe. ""This way makes
it impossible to refuse the money,"" Annamalai noted. Patturajan confirmed the
newspaper distribution, but questioned its efficiency. He pointed out that
giving bribes to every voter wasted money on committed anti-DMK voters, but
conceded that it was an effective way to ensure the bribes reached every
potential persuadable voter.
Applying Thirumangalam to a parliamentary race
---------
CHENNAI 00000144 003.2 OF 004

¶10. (C) Patturajan and others pointed out that the larger size of a
parliamentary constituency makes it difficult to apply the Thirumangalam
approach. The Thirumangalam contest concerned a single assembly seat, which is
about one-seventh the size of a parliamentary district. A journalist for
Thuglak, a Tamil weekly, confirmed that the Madurai parliamentary constituency
has approximately one million voters. It would cost Azhagiri $100 million USD to
replicate the Thirumangalam payment of $100 USD to each voter in the Madurai
constituency, which is ""impossible"" according to Patturajan. As a result,
Azhagiri has been forced to ratchet the payment back down to more typical levels,

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but he still plans on giving it to every voter through the newspaper distribution
method. The journalist said that he had personally seen some of the one million
envelopes that the DMK had prepared for the Madurai race, each of which contained
a 500 rupee (10 USD) note. The journalist told us that Azhagiri wanted to
double the amount to 1000 rupees (20 USD) per voter, but the DMK leadership was
reluctant to commit 20 million USD to one parliamentary race. A week after we
met with the journalist, newspapers reported that DMK officials were handing out
envelopes with 500 rupees to voters.

Does vote-buying work?

---------
¶11. (C) Although our interlocutors agreed that paying cash influences voter
behavior, they disagreed on the extent to which it did. We consistently probed
why parties trust people to cast their vote for the candidate who pays them in
light of the fact that there is no way to confirm that an individual voter
actually ""honors the deal."" Patturajan of the DMK said voters who take money
feel ""honor bound"" to vote for the candidate. Kannan, the Congress official
from Madurai, agreed that cultural norms ensure that poor voters in particular
will feel obligated to vote for the candidate from whom they accept money. He
said candidates play to religious sentiments and traditional beliefs to ensure
bribed voters hold up their end of the bargain.
¶12. (C) Annamalai of The Hindu argued that many voters ""will still vote their
conscience."" He said voters find the bribes ""insulting,"" and they vote
against the candidate even though they are forced to take the money as it is left
on their doorstep. He cited his own staff as an example, noting that the ones
who received money during the Thirumangalam by-election pooled it together to
donate to a scholarship fund for a poor student but largely voted against the DMK
candidate. Annamalai's view, however, is likely limited to the largely middle-
and upper-class readership of his English-language newspaper.

¶13. (C) Karti Chidambaram said that bribes are useful but not necessary to
political success. He said that bribes are one factor among many, along with the
quality of the candidate, the strength of the party, and the issues. But he
cautioned that bribes alone will not prevail: ""Anil Ambani (an Indian
billionaire who is one of the world's richest men) can't win an election just by
paying people off. It doesn't work that way."" Chidambaram said that candidates
need a strong party apparatus in order to win elections, but that ""bribes can
help put you over the top"" in a close race.

Diminishing returns due to bribe inflation?

---------

¶14. (C) The DMK's decision to field Azhagiri for the Madurai parliamentary seat
has raised voter expectations. Congress's Kannan said that 110,000 people signed
up for voter identification cards after he announced his candidacy, presumably
motivated by their desire to get Azhagiri's bribe by putting their names on the
voting rolls. Patturajan said that Azhagiri's presence on the ballot had
""raised expectations"" with people expecting to get the same 5,000 rupees per
vote offered in Thirumangalam. He said that his dhobi (clothes washer) told him,
""I have five votes in my family, so I should get 25,000 which will pay for my
daughter's marriage."" When Patturajan told the dhobi that the DMK would not be
paying 5,000 per voter this time around, the dhobi replied that he would vote for
Azhagiri (presumably keeping in mind Patturajan's relationship with Azhagiri)
regardless of the amount offered, but that ""most people will hesitate if the DMK
only gives 1,000."" Patturajan conceded that he was concerned that the DMK could
be harmed by its failure to meet the expectations created by the extraordinarily
large Thirumangalam
CHENNAI 00000144 004.2 OF 004

bribes. But he remained optimistic, arguing that Azhagiri will still prevail by
paying more money to more voters than his opponent, who is from the more
law-abiding Communist Party of India.

Where's the money come from? Corruption and corporates...

---------

¶15. (C) The money required to pay bribes comes from a variety of sources,
primarily from the proceeds of corruption and from funds the parties raise from
businesses. Corruption, according to interlocutors, is a major source of funds
for political parties who are in power. ""The DMK can try to buy elections
because it has spent years in power in Delhi and Chennai,"" said one journalist.
In addition to corruption, backers in the business community regularly fund
political parties' election activities. Ravi Sam, Managing Director of Adwaith
Lakshmi Industries, Inc., a major textile manufacturer in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu,
told us that he had been avoiding visiting Chennai as of late. ""It is the
season for the political parties to come looking for donations,"" he said. But,
Sam said, ""There is no avoiding it in the end,"" and each party gets its
""package"" depending on its place in the hierarchy. Another entrepreneur echoed
Sam's comments, telling us that even in a one-party town like Azhagiri's Madurai,
business people hedge their bets by contributing to multiple political parties.

Cash for votes a way of political life

---------

¶16. (C) Comment: Among the many factors -- personalities, alliances, caste,
and religion, to name just a few -- that play out in Indian elections, the role
of money is one of the most difficult to analyze. Observers and participants see
bribery as a fact of life in India's elections. But the methods used and the
degree to which they impact voter preferences are, by their very nature, hard to
assess, especially for outsiders. That said, our experience in South India
suggests that the practice of paying cash for votes is widespread and that it is
likely to swing elections, especially close contests, given India's predominately
poor electorate. The influence of the many other factors makes it impossible for
a political party to ""buy"" all of the seats in play in any election, but cases
like the Thirumangalam by-election and Azhagiri's run for parliament show that
voter bribery will no doubt have an impact on the results of India's elections

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when they are announced on May 16. End comment.

KAPLAN

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