Superstition has been inseparable from Telugu states’ politics. The tragic death of newly-elected young woman MLA Lasya Nanditha, who was killed in a road accident on the Outer Ring Road in Telangana’s Sangerddy district, has brought the superstitious beliefs to fore yet again.
The 37-year-old software engineering graduate, who was a first-time MLA from Secunderabad Cantonment, suffered serious injuries after her vehicle collided with a road divider.
The MLA, along with her family, was returning from a famous dargah near Sadashivapet mandal in Sangareddy district to her house in Hyderabad when tragedy occurred. In December 2023, she got stuck in an elevator when it crashed from six feet due to overloading. She escaped unhurt.
Again, on February 13 this year, Lasya was involved in an accident while returning to Hyderabad after attending a public meeting organised by BRS at Nalgonda for demanding Krishna water rights. Although she sustained only minor injuries, a home guard died.
In the third incident on Friday morning, she lost her life.
The MLA has been visiting various faith healers in dargahs and temples and wearing mascots (taweez) given by superstition figures to ward off the evil eye, according to local media reports.
“Ever since Nanditha’s father, senior MLA G Sayanna passed away in February last year, the family has been facing a series of setbacks and experiencing unsavoury occurrences. It was precisely for this reason, the MLA’s family went to the dargah to offer prayers to overcome the odds,” media reports quoted family sources.
Doctors found a dozen mascots tied over the body of MLA during postmortem and handed over to the police.
Historically, superstitions such as black magic, muhurat timing and vaastu have been an integral part of Indian politics.
On December 7, A Revanth Reddy was to take oath as the state’s chief minister at 10:28 am but later, the mahurat was changed to 1:04 pm. Who changed the timing? Not government officials, but the chief minister’s astrologers.
It is noteworthy to mention that in the previous BRS government, on December 12, 2018, its president K Chandrashekar Rao’s swearing-in timing was also similarly fixed and later modified by his personal astrologer.
BRS supremo K Chandrasekhar Rao, commonly known as KCR, is known to be a staunch believer of vaastu. While in power, he changed his official residence twice and built a new vaastu-compliant secretariat with an estimated cost over Rs 600 crore.
KCR government had appointed an official vaastu consultant for the government.
In the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, a section of people believes that erstwhile chief minister Chandrababu Naidu chose an inauspicious day for Bhoomi Puja for new capital in Amravati against the warning of his personal astrologer Srinivas Gargeya. That is why the capital never moved to Amravati, they believe.
At the time when the country is leaving a mark in scientific endeavours like lunar mission Chandrayan and the Telugu states pioneer in providing software solutions to the world, yet superstition believes dictates the term for many major events and decisions in these states.
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