Whats in a number?

Some say its just coincidence,some say it is foolish to think on these lines and some believe in it.Why does a David Shepherd hop when the score reaches 111 or multiples of the number thereafter?Why do most hotels in the US skip the number 13?Superstition?

Whats in a number you would think.Well, on careful observation it does lead you into a interesting pattern.Atleast this is what i found while tracking the (mis)fortunes of the Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP).The number 13 has always haunted the party.How many times?I can recollect these:

1.Atal Bihari Vajpayee was sworn is as the first non-Congress prime-minister on the 16th of May 1996.His govt lasted 13 days.He resigned on the 28th of May,3 days before the trust vote, conceding inability to prove his majority on the floor of the house.The vote of confidence was to happen on 31st of May(31 =~13).So you know the result anyway

2.The second time the BJP came to power was in March 1998.This time the govt lasted 13 months and a few days when Jayalalitha withdrew support from the govt

3.They were reelcted in Oct 1999 and looked like completing the full term.During this tenure,the parliament was attacked on the 13th of Dec 2001.They would have lasted the full term except for the fact that they preponed the general elections by six months.So instead of Oct2004,the elctions were held in Mar-Apr 2004.They received a shock defeat.The counting of votes took place on 13th of May 2004

4.This time around they lost more ground.There was nothing strikingly 13 about the election dates or the counting day.The counting took place on 16th of May 2009.So why am i still listing it?Go back to 1.Yes you got it!It has been exactly 13 years since the first BJP govt took oath of office

So what does this mean for the party?Does it indictate that the worst(starting from 13 days,months,years) is over,that they have reached the nadir as far as the seats are concerned in these 13 years and they only can move up from here on?Time will tell

Surely the actual reasons for these downfalls may not be the number itself,but it definitely is symbolic in a way