It was all thanks to the stars, Stupid!

Well now it’s all clear: The Congress-led government won the confidence thanks to the stars! Late on Monday astrologer M Sivagurunathan, and several others, called the election in favour of Manmohan Singh:

“The planet Jupiter is favourably placed in Manmohan Singh’s horoscope. This will protect him against the Saturn and Mars combination, that is in the 10th cuspal point from his ascendant, because of which he is facing this situation,” he told the Times of India.

Obviously!

However, Satish Sharma, the national vice-president of the Indian Council of Astrological Sciences, warns that the constellation that saved the prime minister this time round, might turn against Singh in September:

“Currently, the planet Jupiter is strong in Manmohan Singh’s horoscope. In addition, Saturn, which is in Leo, is protecting the 10th house in the country’s chart, which indicates that the government’s prestige would be saved. However, this position will not continue after September and there is every possibility that the government would not be able to complete its full term and elections will have to be preponed,” he told the ToI.

Rajan Chopra, another astrologer who spoke to Reuters’ reporter Rituparna Bhowmik, also predicted that UPA would have won the confidence vote, but he said it had nothing to do with Singh’s astrological horoscope. He argued that it was all thanks to Sonia Gandhi: “[She] is the main force behind [the PM],” he told Reuters.

Nothing new about that.

Singh, being a true gentleman, gave his main opponent LK Advani, who predicted that the prime minister would have lost the trust vote, a piece of advice:

“I do not expect Shri Advani to change his thinking…but for his sake and India’s sake, I urge him to at least change his astrologer so that he gets more accurate predictions of things to come.”