From CPM backer to astrologer of high & mighty, 'Guruji' Madhava Pothuval has seen it all

IN the swirl of controversy over CPM state secretary M V Govindan's recent visit to an astrologer, one fact is often overlooked: A V Madhava Pothuval is no ordinary soothsayer.

- LAKSHMI ATHIRA @Kannur

From Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah to industrialist Gautam Adani and Supreme Court judges, Pothuval's clientele reads like the who's who of India's political and business elite. 'Guruji' to his north Indian clients, Pothuval's links to the corridors of power began more than a decade ago. In 2010, when Amit Shah was embroiled in a legal fight in connection with the Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case, three acquaintances of Shah approached the Payyanur astrologer with his horoscope.

"I didn't know Amit Shah at the time," Pothuval recalls.

"My relative, Sudha Menon, recommended me to his family. They had to wait three hours at my home, but I predicted the exact date when he will be relieved from the case. When it came true, it sparked a relationship of trust that has endured to this day."

The following year, Shah visited him in Payyanur. Pothuval took him to the Payyanur Subramanya Swami temple and the Thaliparamba Rajarajeshwara temple, suggesting offerings such as the 'swarna kuda pooja' and 'swarna vel'.