New Delhi: 

Illustration/Sameer Pawar

With only two days to go before the "mini election" begins Chhattisgarh goes to the polls on Nov 14 followed by Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Mizoram, Rajasthan and Jammu and Kashmir politicians of all hues are flocking to astrologers, family priests, gemologists, tarot card readers and what have you to appease the gods.

Party no bar

From the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Prime Ministerial candidate LK Advani, who always takes advice from a Jharkhand-based astrologer, to the councillor hoping to turn a legislator in Delhi, everyone is making a beeline for the intermediaries to the gods.

"I have been quite busy meeting and predicting poll fortunes of several politicians from various political parties," said popular Bangalore-based corporate astrologer Daivagnya Somayaji, who is regularly consulted by Karnataka's first BJP Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa.

Delhi state Congress president JP Aggarwal said he always conferred with his family priest Harish Sharma about the right time and day to file his nomination and start his campaign.

Trust my priest

"My priest also tells me the time I should leave my house and reach the returning officer's office for filing nomination," Aggarwal said, adding that this had always worked for him.

Chhattisgarh Revenue and Forest Minister Brijmohan Agrawal said candidly, "I believe in being in touch with astrologers. And most of the times you will have prior indications of good or bad times waiting for you." Interestingly, the superstitious streak cuts across not just political lines but also religious divides.

Reciting Quran

In Madhya Pradesh, Muslim candidates are not far behind. Many are reciting the Quran in a single sitting in a ritual called Quran Khani. There is also Ayetah Karima Khatam, a couplet from the Quran recited 125,000 times in a single sitting, and the Surah Fateha Khatam a couplet of the Quran recited for a couple of hours.