<p>As many as 370 acceptable entries were received by President of the Federation of Indian Rationalist Associations Narendra Nayak, in response to the Association’s challenge to predict the results of the 2009 Lok Sabha polls. Ironically, not even one entry (even non-astrologer entries) did not qualify for the Rs 10 lakh cash award announced by the Association. <br />According to a press release, the challenge was to predict the winning party, next PM, number of seats obtained by each party and number of votes polled by some specific candidates. <br /><br />25 questions<br /><br />In total, there were 25 questions. Even if 20 of the answers turned out right, the entry would have been considered for the award, but the maximum marks scored was 6, interestingly by a non-astrologer and hence none of the entries qualified for the award. <br />Ranges were not allowed as answers, but specific numbers though ±10% of the correct answer was considered correct. However, the people who claims to have support of supernatural powers couldn’t make use of any relaxations. Quite interestingly, some of them predicted the number of seats for Bharatiya Samajwadi Party, a non existent party and also for a non-existent candidate Sheena Rai in Kasargod. In the press release, Nayak opined that this miserable performance of the astrologers and also those who try to predict things by supernatural powers should be an eye opener to the gullible people who tend to take decisions based on the advice of such people.</p>
<p>As many as 370 acceptable entries were received by President of the Federation of Indian Rationalist Associations Narendra Nayak, in response to the Association’s challenge to predict the results of the 2009 Lok Sabha polls. Ironically, not even one entry (even non-astrologer entries) did not qualify for the Rs 10 lakh cash award announced by the Association. <br />According to a press release, the challenge was to predict the winning party, next PM, number of seats obtained by each party and number of votes polled by some specific candidates. <br /><br />25 questions<br /><br />In total, there were 25 questions. Even if 20 of the answers turned out right, the entry would have been considered for the award, but the maximum marks scored was 6, interestingly by a non-astrologer and hence none of the entries qualified for the award. <br />Ranges were not allowed as answers, but specific numbers though ±10% of the correct answer was considered correct. However, the people who claims to have support of supernatural powers couldn’t make use of any relaxations. Quite interestingly, some of them predicted the number of seats for Bharatiya Samajwadi Party, a non existent party and also for a non-existent candidate Sheena Rai in Kasargod. In the press release, Nayak opined that this miserable performance of the astrologers and also those who try to predict things by supernatural powers should be an eye opener to the gullible people who tend to take decisions based on the advice of such people.</p>
