ASTROLOGY IN POLITICS

Politicians and Sooth-Sayers have always shared a cozy relationship. Some of the politicians who are known to follow the advice of astrologers assiduously include Jayalalitha, Deva Gowda, and many top leaders in the BJP and INC. The latest from Jayalalitha is that her astrologer wants her to contest 23 seats in Tamil Nadu, the result of which might just lead to the breaking of her new found multi party alliance. Amma’s brush with astrologers is not new. She was asked to keep the name J Jayalalitha. Since people referred to her as Jayalalitha, her astrologers asked her to change her name to Jayalalithaa ( note the extra ‘a’). In Numerology ‘a’ and ‘j’ have the same value of 1 and hence the change.

                          Amma has already given 7 seats to the PMK ( a Vanniyar caste based party), 3 seats each to the CPI and CPM thus leaving the total number of available seats to 26 (39-7-3-3). If she has to contest 23 seats then she has only 3 seats left for the MDMK. It should be noted that MDMK already has 4 Lok Sabha MP’s. The MDMK general secretary Mr.Vaiko had asked for 5 seats from Amma but now has only 3 on offer. Of the 3 seats, one is Central Madras and the other is Madurai both of which are the stronghold of the DMK. Mr.Dayanadhi Maran will be contesting in Central Madras and Mr.Alagiri (son of M.Karunanidhi) will be contesting in Madurai, so there is no way of winning these two seats.

 

           It is now being contemplated that Mr.Vaiko could join hands with the DMDK ( popular Tamil actor Vijaykanth’s party) or the BJP. However in either case there is no doubt that the MDMK will draw a complete blank in the Lok sabha polls.Now coming back to the Amma, she now wants every prospective MP seat seeking party men to meet her with their horoscopes. The interview process is apparently three fold. In the first round the seat seeker’s spending prowess is analyzed, in the second round the person’s popularity in  the constituency is analysed. Now after this is a personal one on one meeting with Amma. Now the person is required to meet Amma with his/her horoscope. This horoscope will be analyzed by Amma’s personal astrologer, to decide on the winnability of the candidate.

 

            Seems Amma is hell-bent on restoring her ego as a serious player in Tamil Nadu politics after being routed in the 2004 General elections and the 2006 Assembly elections. But can the other camp (the DMK) pride themselves to be rationalists? It is a well known fact that M.Karunanidhi wears a Yellow shawl and a gem stone ring on requests from his family members after advice with an astrologer. So all’s fair in love, war and politics!