Assembly elections: Predict winners and win Rs 1 crore!

(Neel Kamal, TNN | Feb 20, 2012,  Times of India: Link: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Assembly-elections-Predict-winners-and-win-Rs-1-crore/articleshow/11967278.cms?intenttarget=noAccessed on February 24, 2012)

BARNALA: Predict which party is winning how many seats in the assembly elections in five states and win prize of Rs one crore. This may seem amazing but it is true.

Tarksheel(rational) society, formed to get people out of the clutches of superstitions and inculcate scientific approach, has challenged the astrologers, fortune tellers to predict winners in the ongoing assembly polls and win Rs one crore.

Term it a gimmick or a challenge but Tarksheel society Bharat has announced to award Rs one crore and has put the challenge on social networking sites such as facebook.

The only condition is that the winner will have to predict correctly at least 24 out of a total of 30 varied questions such as who will be next CM in Punjab, UP, Goa, Manipur, Uttrakhand, how many seats each party SAD, Congress, BJP will win in Punjab, how many seats BSP, SP, Congress, BJP, RLD, JD(U) will win in UP, how many votes PS Badal, Amarinder Singh, Sukhbir Badal, Rajinder Kaur Bhattal will obtain, with a error margin of 10%, how many women will win UP, what will be exact number of seats each party will win in Manipur, Uttrakhand and Goa.

Society founder Megh Raj Mittar said "the award has been floated to discourage astrologers from fooling people and claim that they have supernatural powers".

Mittar said anyone is free to predict but if more than one person predicts rightly, the award money will be divided and neatly typed or printed answers could be sent by March 4 before poll results are announced on March 6.

Mittar said all the questions are compulsory to answer and anyone wanting to participate in this test will have to deposit a fee of Rs one thousand.

Society publishes scientific magazine Vigyan Jyot and also runs a campiagn to encourage people to donate their body after death for medical research purposes.