Shashi Tharoor applies vermilion on Sunanda Pushkar after performing a puja at the Shani Shingnapur temple in Maharashtra on Sunday. (PTI)

Mumbai, Aug. 1: Shashi Tharoor and Sunanda Pushkar today offered prayers at a Maharashtra shrine where devotees throng to beat ill luck but the question playing on the minds of watchers of such celestial matters was if the twosome would turn up together at a southern temple 16 days from now.

If they do so on August 17 at the renowned Sree Padmanabha Swami Temple in Thiruvananthapuram, the constituency the former junior foreign minister represents in the Lok Sabha, it will be an auspicious occasion for a wedding. August 17 heralds the traditional new year in Kerala, the first day of Chingamasam, the gateway month to all things celebratory on the calendar of a Malayali.

A source said Pushkar and Tharoor, whose friendship had blown the lid off the IPL scandal that cost the junior minister his job and Lalit Modi his blockbuster brainchild itself, could marry soon as the debonair politician is officially single again. Tharoor’s divorce from his second wife, Canadian Christa Giles, came through on Friday.

A friend of Tharoor said the MP could tie the knot with Pushkar on August 17. If a wedding is indeed planned, there are no legal hurdles now, although Pushkar’s father had died a few months ago and some families wait for a year of mourning to pass before holding auspicious events.

Right after news of the divorce came in on Friday, Tharoor and Pushkar had made a joint public appearance in Gurgaon — their first near the capital since the IPL controversy broke. They watched the autobiographical play, Kuch Bhi Ho Sakta Hai, by Anupam Kher, who is also a Kashmiri like Pushkar, at a theatre.

On Saturday morning, Tharoor came down to Mumbai with Pushkar. Later, they drove 250km via Nashik to a village in Maharashtra near Shirdi to perform a “sankalp puja” to Lord Shani. Pushkar and Tharoor offered prayers at the famous Sai Baba temple in Shirdi, too.

Tharoor and Pushkar performed “abhishek” at the Shani temple, which apparently helps overcome bad luck. Sources said an astrologer in Kerala, where some politicians do not hesitate to gloss over their communist convictions to nurture closet oracles, had suggested to Tharoor he make the visit to the shrine in the western state.

Tharoor told reporters he had performed the ritual for “family peace”.

Shashi Tharoor performs a puja as Sunanda Pushkar looks on at the Maharashtra temple on Sunday. (PTI)

Shani Shingnapur, some 30 to 40km from Shirdi, is known for Shani worshippers devoted to the local Shaneshwar temple. The village has been featured in numerous publications as a hamlet where no house has a front door.

The empty door frames symbolise a belief that Shani, the deity, will punish anyone who attempts a theft there. No theft has ever been reported in any of the homes in the village and residents do not keep their valuables under lock and key.

“Shashi performed a sankalp puja at Shaneshwar. The sankalp puja at the temple is done before embarking on any anushthan (ceremony) and before making a mannat (wish),” said an official from the Mumbai-based Bhakti Dhara Foundation, which assisted Tharoor and Pushkar in the visit.

The temple does not allow women in the sanctum sanctorum. A photograph showed Pushkar seated next to Tharoor but sources said it was another puja outside the sanctum sanctorum.

“Mr Tharoor had been keen on visiting the Shani temple for a while and we were told on Friday that he would come for a visit. The sankalp puja was done to remove the Shani ill-effects…” said the Bhakti Dhara official.

Tharoor lived up to his reputation by tweeting about the temples later. “Wonderful visit 2 (to) open-air temple to Saturn and Shani Shingnapur. Simple ritual in clean, pure surroundings. 1 (one) can nvr know enuf of our culture,” he tweeted.

A tweet went out about the Shirdi temple, too. “Made first visit to Shirdi. Extraordinary temple to Sai baba, who preached Shraddha and Saburi (faith and peace) hundred years back. Sabka malik ek (1 God).”

If a marriage does take place on August 17 (the temple built by the Travancore royal family is encircled by wedding halls), some newspapers in Kerala are certain to have a field day playing on a serenading film song that loosely translates as “when the month of Chingam arrives, I’ll make you mine”.