Guest guest Posted June 19, 2004 Report Share Posted June 19, 2004 'Priyanka has the most beautiful horoscope. She will be the queen' Saturday June 19 2004 11:24 IST NEW DELHI: So, who will be the next Congress prime minister? “Oh! Priyanka has the most beautiful horoscope,'' says 82-year-old Lachman Das Madan, among India's well-known astrologers, who is recuperating from overwork and exhaustion a hospital bed in a city suburb. “It makes her a queen”. He does not have Rahul Gandhi's horoscope. Arjun Singh, however, will never become PM, he says. “I warned Singh not to believe others because it will only lead him to doom. Not surprisingly, he fought Narasimha Rao and lost his job,'' he says. However, it is not Priyanka or Rahul that is preoccupying the astrologer's attention. It is the notorious transition of Saturn in the Eighth House of the Moon, the favourable location of beneficent Jupiter, and other volatile celestial activity has set off a flurry of political activity. And Das is the centre of BJP's universe. Former PM A.B. Vajpayee has called him up several times, Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat came calling on Friday afternoon, former DPM L.K. Advani has been in regular touch with him, former HRD Minister Murli Manohar Joshi is on the phone at least half-a-dozen times a day. Political circles are agog with Das' latest prediction - come September, the Congress-led UPA Government will collapse under the weight of its contradictions and a new government will come to power. ``Something will happen soon and some old and new faces will come. The BJP will come back.'' says Das, who had predicted that neither Vajpayee or Sonia Gandhi would become prime minister after the last elections. Das, however, is a little circumspect about the “face'' of the new government. “I have only a hazy idea because I believe in prediction, not gossip,'' he says. “All I can say is, it will happen. But I can give several reasons what can cause the downfall of this government.'' It could be resentment to Sonia's authoritative ways from both within and outside the party (“the Congress wants to dominate despite only 145 seats''), ideological clash between the Communists and Congress (``economic compulsions will force the Congress and BJP to come together'') and that the Congress will not remain intact as it is today (“there will be a definite split in the party''). Das makes his final pronouncement, in between phone calls from BJP's Bollywood star Shatrughan Sinha and his wife, Poonam: “The BJP may not form the government but it will bring allies, both old, like Karunanidhi, and new, like Mulayam Singh, together. Anyway, my prediction will be correct even if 10 BJP members join the Congress or vice-versa.'' There are non-believers too. “I do not believe life is pre-destined nor do planets influence our lives,'' says BJP general secretary Pramod Mahajan. “This government will last five years and if it goes before, it will be pulled down by none other than the Congress itself.'' But Das is excited by the new alignment of planets and stars and his reflections on this emerging configuration - he is waiting anxiously for his monthly astral magazine Baba Ji, which he has been editing and publishing since 1981. “Did you know this magazine is here only because of Arjun Singh's blessings? I had just Rs 100 but my friend gave me four advertisements worth Rs 1,000 each, which set me off,'' he says. “I am a child of the Congress, from Nehru to Indira to Rajiv, I know all of them.'' 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