Siddaramaiah Orders Open ‘Cursed’ Door That Loses Polls

Bengaluru: Shutting the door on superstition and opening it to reason once again, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has begun using the ‘inauspicious’ south door to his chamber in the state assembly building today. 

The door in the Vidhana Soudha, which was forced shut in 1998 after then chief minister J H Patel lost the assembly elections, had been ordered open by Mr Siddaramaiah after he became the chief minister in 2013. Six chief ministers assumed office in those 15 years, but the door remained firmly shut.

Despite losing the chief ministership in 2018 and three successors – BJP’s B S Yediyurappa and Basavaraj Bommai, and H D Kumaraswamy of the Janata Dal (Secular) – refusing to use the door, Siddaramaiah got it opened again today. 

The chief minister’s chamber is on the third floor of the Vidhana Soudha and even assembly members consider the south-facing door unlucky, preferring to use the west-facing one instead. The south door is said to be in non-compliance with ‘Vaastu’ standards. 

Mr Yediyurappa, known to be superstitious, had changed the spelling of his name from ‘Yeddyurappa’ before taking oath as chief minister for the fourth time in 2019. 

‘Yediyurappa’ was how the BJP leader had spelt his name through most of his political career – from the time he won his first civic body election in 1975 to being appointed as the Chief Minister for the first time in 2007. He had then changed the spelling of his name to ‘Yeddyurappa’, reportedly on the advice of numerologists.

Last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also taken a dig at Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao over his superstitious beliefs. The PM had claimed that all decisions – from where to live to whom to pick as minister- were being taken based on superstition.