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Star-struck!

N Sathiya Moorthy in Madras

On a lucky day, in Coimbatore, his lucky town, M K Stalin sat happy and content inside his lucky vehicle.

"This," said the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam youth wing leader of his Tata Sumo, "is my lucky vehicle. I started the election campaign last time from this town, in this vehicle, and we won a massive victory. So this time too, I am launching my campaign from this town, abroad the same vehicle."

A bit surprising, this, when you consider that Stalin belongs to a 'rationalist' party which had, not so long ago, decried such 'irrational' faith. But here he was, the son of DMK supremo and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Karunanidhi, talking about 'lucky' vehicles and other talismans!

On second thoughts, however, Stalin's faith is not all that surprising -- he, in all probability, must have got it from Karunanidhi.

The DMK boss's particular weakness is for a yellow shawl, without which he is never seen in public. Shawls are not unusual to the Dravidian political culture, and many a leader do wrap them lovingly around their neck. But those are all either the trademark black of the Dravidar Kazhagam or the black-and-red of the DMK.

But for Karunanidhi it has been yellow for about three years now. No one, not even his partymen, are ready to buy his explanation that it is per his physician's advice, to protect him from common cold.

"Whatever the medical advice, the choice of yellow colour is based on astrology," confirmed an insider.

Now, 'lucky' things don't stop with just shawls and cars in the DMK. A close relative of the chief minister, sources said, has performed a special puja for his sake at the Guru temple at Alangudy, near Kumbakonam in central Tamil Nadu, when 'Jupiter changed its zodiac position on January 6.' And Karunanidhi's wife Dhayalu Ammal was among the chief guests at the recent wedding of the second son of Bangaru Adigal, a known 'godman,' at the Melmaruvattur temple, near Madras. She is also known to be a devotee of Lord Krishna.

While Karunanidhi was publicly condemning the 'unscientific and anti-rationalist act' of ministerial colleague 'Andhiyur' Selvaraj -- he walked on fire at the Bannari Amman Temple near Coimbatore -- his daughter-in-law, Durga, went on record to say she was doing puja in the house.

The 'irrationalism' doesn't stop with just the DMK. All India Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief Jayalalitha Jayaram, too, is a great one for such beliefs. Before her, her mentor, the late M G Ramachandran, and other Dravidian stalwarts like V R Nedunchezhiyan and Rajaram had taken to religion even more strongly.

Nedunchezhiyan was publicly associating with Bangaru Adigal in the late 1980s. Rajaram has been known to visit temples and go on pilgrimages for over two decades now.

For his part, Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam supremo V Gopalaswamy, who keeps taunting Karunanidhi about his shawl, seems to have taken a liking for numerology. Despite his denials, partymen say he has adopted the abbreviated nomenclature of 'Vai Ko', insisting on its usage only on the advise of numerologists.

Jayalalitha's addiction, too, is for the same. Her lucky number used to be nine. It was said that everything in politics, from the date of her taking important decisions, the number of pages in important documents, car registration numbers, and the number of ministerial colleagues she added or dropped, always totalled nine. Her cabinet strength was 27, adding up to nine. She dropped nine of them from the party list for the last assembly election... the list is long.

Her lucky number for this year is said to be five. And hence her insistence on retaining 23 seats (adding up to five) for AIADMK, giving away the remaining 17 seats to her allies.

In public, however, Jaya denies it all. "Every number is a lucky number," she says, "Even 40 is lucky for me!"

Among the politicians, it's only Tamil Maanila Congress supremo G K Moopanar who has been open about his astrological priorities. He doesn't meet the press, if he can help it, during inauspicious hours. Like last time, he launched his campaign at an auspicious hour, after praying at the Mangadu temple.

Moopanar, as also Karunandihi, released their list of candidates after sunset, as the malefic influences of the stars are believed to be rendered impotent after that.

And guess which were the days that saw the maximum number of nominations? January 27, and the early hours of January 28, when amavyas was still the ruling sign. Every political party and nominee (yes, the Marxists, too!), excluding the Pattali Makkal Katchi, preferred that day -- malefic influences, you see, were impotent on a new moon day!

Incidentally, no one bothered to deny the significance of that day, except Gopalswamy. For him it was only a matter of convenience, if you please!

Elections '98

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