Feature
Fragmented opposition gives Bharatiya Janata Party an advantage edge
Lucknow: A thoroughly fragmented opposition in Uttar Pradesh seems to be giving a definite advantage to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state.
The multi-cornered contest that seems inevitable in almost all constituencies will help the BJP and also overcome the anti-incumbency factor to a large extent.
To begin with, the SP-BSP-RLD alliance is contesting all 78 of the 80 seats, leaving Amethi and Rae Bareli as a goodwill gesture for the Congress.
But the Congress is contesting 73 seats, leaving seven seats for the Samajwadi clan and the Rashtriya Lok Dal leaders.
The seats left by the Congress include Mainpuri, Ferozabad, Kannauj, Badaun, Azamgarh, Baghpat and Muzaffarnagar.
Shivpal Singh Yadav’s Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (PSP) is making the contest four-cornered by putting up candidates on all 80 seats.
The Shiv Sena, an ally of the BJP in Maharashtra, is also putting up candidates on five seats while independent legislator Raja Bhaiyya is fielding candidates from his newly formed Jansatta Party.
Fragmented opposition in UP to give definite advantage to Bharatiya Janata Party:
Professor Ramesh Dixit, a retired political scientist and now the state President of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), said: “It is unfortunate that secular forces seem determined to defeat the BJP but cannot resolve their differences when it comes to seat sharing.
“Secular leaders should have set their egos aside and made adjustments. The battle would have been easier.”
Shivpal Yadav, who heads the breakaway faction of the Samajwadi Party known as PSP, is being termed as a ‘vote katua’ (vote cutter) in the local parlance. The Samajwadis accuse him of helping the BJP by hurting the SP-BSP-RLD alliance.
He denied the charge and said: “The Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party is a grassroots organization that has it own following. It is the Samajwadi Party that has compromised with its ideology and has become subservient to the BSP. As for giving the BJP an edge, I can tell you that people will vote for the party that gives a tough challenge to the BJP.”
Congress leaders admit that division of secular votes will work to BJP’s advantage but insist that they are not to blame for the prevailing situation.
Congress spokesperson and former MLA Akhilesh Pratap Singh said: “Voters are well aware of who can fight the BJP at the national level. It is the Congress alone that has been pitted against the BJP. We wanted a grand alliance but seat adjustment has to be respectable.”
The Samajwadi Party insisted that the SP-BSP alliance would walk away with most of the 80 parliamentary seats in Uttar Pradesh. “Together, SP and BSP will get a majority of seats and the BJP will be reduced to a single digit,” said SP spokesman Anurag Bhadauria.
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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