Feature
BJP dominate in Assam civic polls
Guwahati: Following a big jolt in the Delhi assembly election, BJP managed to make a mark in the civic bodies in Assam and won 340 of 746.
Election officials said while the Bharatiya Janata Party won 340 wards under 38 municipal bodies and town committees, the Congress won 232 wards under 17 municipal bodies and town committees.
Regional political party Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) won 39 wards followed by the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) with eight and the Nationalist Congress Party with four wards.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and the Bodoland People’s Front (BPF) won one seat each, while 77 were won by independents, officials said.
An election official they “still compiling some of the counting reports”.
The results came as a contrast to that in 2009, when the ruling Congress in Assam had secured 425 seats. The AGP and the BJP came second and third, with 102 and 66 seats respectively.
The civic polls which were held Feb 9 was seen as a semi final by the political parties, ahead of the state assembly polls slated for early next year.
The results came as a major setback for the Congress which has been in power in Assam since 2001. The party had suffered a lot in the last four years due to the growing difference of opinion among party leaders.
Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, however, said the results of the civic polls were as expected, and that the party fared better than the Lok Sabha polls.
Gogoi, however, took to the Delhi election results quickly in his bid to slam the BJP, and said people discarded the BJP in just eight months.
The result, however, elated the BJP in Assam, which is hoping to make it big in the 2016 assembly polls. The BJP had secured seven of 14 Lok Sabha seats in Assam in the 2014 elections.
“We are happy to see the results of the civic polls today. I hope the people of Assam have accepted the BJP and they have realised the misrule of the Congress in Assam over the years,” said Assam BJP president Siddhartha Bhattacharyya.
In Delhi too, the BJP hailed the results of the local body elections, saying the results indicated that the people of Assam had made up their minds to oust the incumbent Congress government.
In a statement, party spokesperson Sambit Patra said the results were of “prime importance” as the state will go for assembly polls in 2016.
The elections held to 74 urban local bodies registered a voting percentage of about 72 percent.
Patra said of the 74 urban local bodies that went to the polls, the BJP won at least 45, significantly improving its number from 16 it had won in the last election.
“The results clearly point to the fact that the people of Assam have made up their minds to outst the incumbent Congress government and install a development-oriented BJP government,” he said.
The State Scores Extra High on Gaming-Friendly Industry Index
Meghalaya scored 92.85 out of 100 possible points in a Gaming Industry Index and proved to be India’s most gaming-friendly state following its recent profound legislation changes over the field allowing land-based and online gaming, including games of chance, under a licensing regime.
The index by the UK India Business Council (UKIBC) uses a scale of 0 to 100 to measure the level of legalisation on gambling and betting achieved by a state based on the scores over a set of seven different games – lottery, horse racing, betting on sports, poker, rummy, casino and fantasy sports
Starting from February last year, Meghalaya became the third state in India’s northeast to legalise gambling and betting after Sikkim and Nagaland. After consultations with the UKIBC, the state proceeded with the adoption of the Meghalaya Regulation of Gaming Act, 2021 and the nullification of the Meghalaya Prevention of Gambling Act, 1970. Subsequently in December, the Meghalaya Regulation of Gaming Rules, 2021 were notified and came into force.
All for the Tourists
The move to legalise and license various forms of offline and online betting and gambling in Meghalaya is aimed at boosting tourism and creating jobs, and altogether raising taxation revenues for the northeastern state. At the same time, the opportunities to bet and gamble legally will be reserved only for tourists and visitors.
“We came out with a Gaming Act and subsequently framed the Regulation of Gaming Rules, 2021. The government will accordingly issue licenses to operate games of skill and chance, both online and offline,” said James P. K. Sangma, Meghalaya State Law and Taxation Minister speaking in the capital city of Shillong. “But the legalized gambling and gaming will only be for tourists and not residents of Meghalaya,” he continued.
To be allowed to play, tourists and people visiting the state for work or business purposes will have to prove their non-resident status by presenting appropriate documents, in a process similar to a bank KYC (Know Your Customer) procedure.
Meghalaya Reaches Out to a Vast Market
With 140 millions of people in India estimated to bet regularly on sports, and a total of 370 million desi bettors around prominent sporting events, as per data from one of the latest reports by Esse N Videri, Meghalaya is set to reach out and take a piece of a vast market.
Estimates on the financial value of India’s sports betting market, combined across all types of offline channels and online sports and cricket predictions and betting platforms, speak about amounts between $130 and $150 billion (roughly between ₹9.7 and ₹11.5 lakh crore).
Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Delhi are shown to deliver the highest number of bettors and Meghalaya can count on substantial tourists flow from their betting circles. The sports betting communities of Karnataka, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana are also not to be underestimated.
Among the sports, cricket is most popular, registering 68 percent of the total bet count analyzed by Esse N Videri. Football takes second position with 11 percent of the bets, followed by betting on FIFA at 7 percent and on eCricket at 5 percent. The last position in the Top 5 of popular sports for betting in India is taken by tennis with 3 percent of the bet count.
Local Citizens will Still have Their Teer Betting
Meghalaya residents will still be permitted to participate in teer betting over arrow-shooting results. Teer is a traditional method of gambling, somewhat similar to a lottery draw, and held under the rules of the Meghalaya Regulation of the Game of Arrow Shooting and the Sale of Teer Tickets Act, 2018.
Teer includes bettors wagering on the number of arrows that reach the target which is placed about 50 meters away from a team of 20 archers positioned in a semicircle.
The archers shoot volleys of arrows at the target for ten minutes, and players place their bets choosing a number between 0 and 99 trying to guess the last two digits of the number of arrows that successfully pierce the target.
If, for example, the number of hits is 256, anyone who has bet on 56 wins an amount eight times bigger than their wager.
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