Chennai: Chief minister Jayalalithaa and her archrival M. Karunanidhi are among the most recent customers of Rouf Basha, the ‘lucky’ stamp vendor of Mylapore. Both bought their stamp papers from him for filing their nomination papers in R K Nagar and Tiruvarur.
“Many have bought the stamp papers from me over the years because I am considered lucky”, beamed Basha when DC caught up with him at his modest home on Tuesday. While it should surprise none that the God-fearing Jayalalithaa chose to use ‘lucky’ Basha’s stamp paper to file her nomination papers at auspicious time, it is interesting that her ‘rationalist’ rival chose to follow the same ‘divine’ ways.
Basha, who has been selling stamp papers since 1997 in his residence in Mylapore, says several people turn up everyday at his house to buy stamp papers. “There are so many people who come to me. Since the customers only give their names to buy stamp papers, I don’t know who are they. I have sold stamp papers in the name of Jayalalithaa and Karunanidhi several times. I did not know I was selling them to the political veterans,” Mr Basha said.
Though the sale of stamp papers pick up pace during elections, Mr Basha says the business has seen a downward ever since the government launched e-stamps. People still come to him to buy high-value stamp papers like those valued at Rs 15,000 and Rs 25,000.
“Since I function from my residence, there is no fixed timings for me. People even come at 11 pm to buy stamp papers. There are several people who find me lucky. If they come once to buy papers, they always come back to me asking for stamp papers,” he said.
