Feature
AAP to spread its wings in Uttar Pradesh
Lucknow: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is all set to spread its wings in Uttar Pradesh after getting a brilliant response in the Delhi assembly elections. AAP workers and leader would be looking forward to make the most of the advantage they got from the Delhi polls to get good results in the Uttar Pradesh.
The state had slipped out of the party’s radar following the initial euphoria after Arvind Kejriwal took power in Delhi the first time in December 2013. Now it seems to be finding favour with people again.
Admitting that the AAP was back in action for a long political innings, a senior party leader told IANS that the party had plans to spread its wings in Uttar Pradesh.
“Very much,” said Vaibhav Maheshwari, a member of the AAP National Council and spokesman in Uttar Pradesh. The “leadership is very keen to expand in Uttar Pradesh”, he said.
But he added that this time there would be less of euphoria and more of ground work.
“We have learnt our lessons of stretching beyond our means. Now the expansion will be more structured,” he said.
An IT entrepreneur, Maheshwari says the party web site has witnessed a “quake of sorts” since the victory in Delhi where the AAP crushed the BJP and the Congress, bagging 67 of the 70 assembly seats.
The BJP won just three seats. The Congress was wiped out.
Thousands of youngsters and even senior citizens are approaching the 27-month-old AAP in Uttar Pradesh since the Delhi tsunami.
The party is brushing the dust off the 72 district committees already in place but out of action, specially after the Lok Sabha rout which saw all AAP candidates bite the dust.
Kejriwal himself lost to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Varanasi. So did another prominent leader, Kumar Vishwas, to Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi in Amethi.
The five zones in the state comprising 15-18 districts each have been sensitized on future action plans of the AAP, a senior functionary said.
But the party will now be focussing more on Poorvanchal, a region which includes the Lok Sabha constituencies of Modi (Varanasi) and Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav (Azamgarh).
The UP Secretariat, a body working in the absence of a formal state committee, is likely to be remodelled soon to revitalize the 1.2 million members in the state.
“Already we are flooded with telephone calls, SMSes and mails,” said an activist.
The AAP has opened three new offices in Lucknow and wants to scale up the number to 110.
In the last few days, the AAP membership has surged. Interestingly, most new entrants are from Varanasi (23,000) followed by Ghaziabad (19,000) and Lucknow (16,500), says Avinash Tripathi, a party leader.
Sanjay Singh, the national spokesman of the party, hails from Sultanpur in Uttar Pradesh. He is likely to meet the state leadership and strategize the AAP’s plans to expand in the sprawling state.
Uttar Pradesh will go to the polls in 2017 to elect a new assembly.
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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