Perhaps, their stars did not favour them, but no astrologer could rise up to the challenge by the Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmulan Samiti (MANS) to accurately predict the results of the recent Lok Sabha polls. The rationalist body, which was once headed by anti-superstition crusader Dr Narendra Dabholkar, who was shot at and killed in 2013 by assailants and are yet to be brought to book, had declared a cash reward for those who could get these predictions right.
Incidentally, this is not for the first time that the Samiti's challenge has not been accepted by astrologers and those who claim to accurately foretell the future. Similar wagers during the Lok Sabha and state assembly elections in 2009 and 2014 also went unanswered.
"No one came forth to accept our challenge. A few astrologers claimed in public that they would do so, but eventually, they did not," said Avinash Patil, state executive president of the MANS. Patil added that their activists had visited an astronomy conference at Nashik and asked the attendees to participate. They had also circulated a copy of the entry form on WhatsApp, email, and registered post to prominent astrologers, institutions and almanac publishers.
This involved an entry fee of Rs 1,000, and those predicting the results accurately would get a reward of Rs 21 lakh.
"These astrologers may have shied away as they would have been exposed if they failed in passing this test. This, in turn, would have affected their business by making people think about the futility of their claims," said Patil.
Nitin Shinde, state secretary of the Samiti's Vidnyan Bodh Vahini, said the duration of the challenge was from April 8 to May 20. The contest involved a list of 25 questions, which included making predictions on number of seats for each political parties, fates of prominent winners, probable victors in certain constituencies, votes polled for the NOTA option, prominent women candidates who would win and the number of women to be elected to the Lok Sabha.