Kathmandu: They made predictions - some with success and some without - about the end of the country's royal dynasty and the end of the Maoist insurgency. Now Nepal's cosmopolitan astrologers are predicting a victory for Barack Obama.
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According to Nepal's leading soothsayers, Republican candidate John McCain's younger opponent will win the November 4 polls, not due to the republican's running mate Sarah Palin but thanks to the democrat's stronger stars.
Santosh Vashisht, who is also the spokesman of the Nepal Astrologers' Council, says McCain, whose sun sign is Sagittarius, was born under the shadow of the evil Saturn, which would reduce his chances of winning.
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Obama, on the other hand, enjoys the blessings of Taurus and Jupiter, which have boosted his prospects of victory.
Madhav Acharya, the religious adviser to deposed king Gyanendra and current head of the calendar committee, echoes Vashisht's views.
According to his calculations, Obama's campaign has been strengthened by the position of the moon, sun and mercury in his astrological chart, which signify a high this year.
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Only if the election is postponed to summer. Astrologer Madhab Bhattarai says his chances will improve after mid-April when Obama's stars will wane.
While the presidential campaign can ignore the Nepali astrologers, it can't however afford to dismiss the Nepali diaspora residing in the US, whose number is nearly 150,000.
In a report from Washington on Monday, Kantipur, Nepal's biggest daily, said Nepalis residing in the US were rooting for Obama, wooed by his pledge for greater education and healthcare funds for the middle and lower middle class.
"Someone like Obama will be able to understand our problems," said Babu Ghimire, a Nepali resident with two children. "Save a few, the majority of Nepalis in the US belong to the low and middle income groups."
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Last week, when Nepalis in Washington celebrated Dashain, Nepal's biggest Hindu festival, Obama's campaign leaflets were translated into Nepali and distributed.
Two months ago, the diaspora had held a conference in Baltimore, where Obama was invited.
Though the Illinois senator did not attend, he however sent a message saying that he could understand the problems of Asians.
Though Nepal's ruling Maoist party, that swept an election on home turf in April, would not comment outright, calling the election an internal matter of the US, yet its sympathies are likely to be with Obama.
In his recent visit to the US, Nepal's Maoist Finance Minister Baburam Bhattarai had said that he favoured the Democratic Party.
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