Mumbai, September 02: Is the number 13 always unlucky? Well, some political parties will readily agree. In fact, the date set for the assembly elections has sparked off an interesting debate among the parties, says a report in Mumbai newspaper.
They are mulling over their fate as voters will exercise their franchise on October 13.The Bharatiya Janata Party BJP is wary of the number, 13.. The BJP’s first government at the Centre under Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s leadership lasted only 13 days. The second time Vajpayee became prime minister, the government was in power for 13 months. The third time, however, the Vajpayee government completed its tenure of five years. But the BJP was thrown out of power in 2004. The date on which votes to these elections were counted was May 13.
Interestingly, in the last Maharashtra assembly election, the last phase of voting was on October 13, 2004. The Congress-Nationalist Congress Party alliance had resumed power in the state on that day.
“We hope this time the number 13 will not be unlucky for us,” a BJP leader said.
On the contrary, BJP’s ally Shiv Sena feels that 13 is lucky for them. “For us, 13 is a lucky number as my father Bal Thackeray launched the Marmik magazine on that date,” said Sena executive chief Uddhav Thackeray. Marmik was launched on August 13, 1960.
NCP spokesperson Madan Bafna said: “For us, number 13 is auspicious as on this date people will vote to bring back the Congress-NCP government.”Congress spokesperson Hussain Dalwai said, “The number 13 is inauspicious for the BJP, not for us. Their government had lasted for 13 days and 13 months. We do not have any problem with the number.”
–Agencies–