It’s lucky 7 for Jaya, Friday for Mamata
Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa’s new fascination is for number 7 while her West Bengal counterpart, Mamata Banerjee, loves Fridays. Shekhar Iyer reports.
Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa’s new fascination is for number 7 while her West Bengal counterpart, Mamata Banerjee, loves Fridays.
A firm believer in numerology like many others in Tamil Nadu, Jayalalithaa chose May 16, the root number being 7 (1+6), to be sworn in as CM. She even inducted 33 ministers so that, along with her, her ministry would add up to number 7 as the root number, AIADMK insiders said.
Earlier, she preferred 9, which, perhaps, “stopped working” for her when she lost the elections in 2004, a party official said.
On being told by some numerologists that 7 was her lucky number, Jayalalithaa insisted on her party contesting 160 seats (1+6+O=7) in the assembly elections, which gave her a landslide victory.
She released the first list of candidates on March 16 (1+6=7) much to the chagrin of her allies before a firm understanding with them.
Now, with her fascination for 7, Jayalalithaa is looking forward to the next Lok Sabha, which will be the 16th (root no. 7) “Then she can have a good number of MPs and play a big role at the Centre,” a party official said.
Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee has no fancy for numbers but likes Fridays, goes the Trinamool Congress buzz. She was declared victorious on a Friday, May 13, and decided to assume office on Friday, May 20.
She considers Friday as “special day” not for numerological or astrological reasons — but because it is also auspicious for Muslims, who form 27% of Bengal's population and solidly backed her in the recently-concluded assembly elections.
In 2001, Jayalalithaa added an extra 'a' to her name (before she became chief minister) because an astrologer told her it would be more propitious. When quizzed, she told an interviewer, “It's my prerogative to do so. I don't have to explain.”
Jayalalithaa goes by Indian numerology, which states that each of us have psychic, destiny and name numbers that can work to our favour if they are suitably changed to match with other influences in the world.