The Left's problem with car number 13

The Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday took a dig at the new ministers in the Left Democratic Front government in Kerala for considering 13 as ‘unlucky’ with none of them keen on taking the “No 13” state car.

In a Facebook post, BJP’s firebreand leader K Surendran mocked the new government saying that it was contradictory that Communist ministers, who swear by rationalism and were not ready to take oath in the name of God and instead preferred to take solemn pledge had shown reluctance in taking the “No 13” state car as their official vehicle.

“The number of minister K T Jaleel’s official car is 12 and that of another minister P Thilothaman is 14. The number of the vehicle of the last minister is 20. What is wrong with 13?” he asked in the post, a day after the new ministers were sworn in.

“Don’t people have the right to know why the Communist Party of India-Marxist and CPI ministers, who have made socialism as their basic ideology, have excluded the number 13?” he said, adding, that the party national leaders Sitaram Yechury and Prakash Karat should give an appropriate reply.

Surendran also asked if the Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had the courage to tell the people that number 13 is unlucky.

In the previous Congress-led-United Democratic Front ministry also there were no takers for No 13 state car, while CPI-M Politburo member M A Baby, who was a minister in the V S Achuthanandan cabinet, had insisted in having the No 13 official car.