The V D Satheesan government in Kerala has revealed that none of its ministers are willing to take the official car bearing registration number 13, citing superstitious beliefs surrounding the number.

Despite the Tourism Department keeping the number 13 car ready for allocation, no minister came forward to claim it. According to sources, not a single minister requested that particular number.

This is not a first-time occurrence — during the previous Ummmen Chandy government too, no minister used the number 13 vehicle. The superstition around the number 13 being inauspicious led ministers to avoid it.

Interestingly, during the previous LDF governments, ministers had actively requested the number 13 car. In the second Pinarayi Vijayan government, Agriculture Minister P Prasad used the number 13 car. In the first Pinarayi government, Finance Minister Thomas Isaac had specifically asked for and used it. During the 2006 V S Achuthanandan government, Education Minister M A Baby also travelled in the number 13 vehicle.

Chief Minister V D Satheesan travels in car number 1, while P K Kunhalikutty uses number 2. The vehicle numbers allocated to ministers are currently temporary. Shibu Baby John has requested number 51, K Muralidharan wants number 11, and Ramesh Chennithala has asked for number 9.