Number 13 car okay for Thomas Isaac, writes to govt

Thiruvananthapuram: Amid suggestions that all LDF ministers had avoided car number 13 considering it unlucky, Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac has written a letter to the government requesting that the number be allotted to his car.

Sources in the Minister’s office confirmed the request but said the government was yet to take a final decision on it. They said the minister had no preference for a number and was allotted number 10. “However, Dr Isaac decided to seek the number after a controversy arose saying Communist leaders shied away from opting for the number,” they said.

BJP leader K Surendran had in a Facebook post pooh-poohed the LDM ministers saying that it was a paradox  that the Communist ministers who swear by rationalism and who refused to take oath in the name of God were reluctant to pick number 13 for their cars.

However, it was pointed out that the ministers were allotted the cars used by the member of the previous UDF ministry and that no UDF minister had a car with that number. M.A. Baby, who was the education minister in the previous LDF ministry, had requested and was allotted the number for his car.

Meanwhile, CPI leader and Agriculture Minister V.S. Sunil Kumar said he would have no problem accepting the car with No 13.  “I would have accepted it happily. The controversies surrounding this issue were unnecessary,” Mr. Sunil Kumar said.  

Dr Isaac had earlier selected Manmohan Bungalow, which is considered jinxed as many of its residents failed to return to the Assembly after their term, as his official residence.