Feature
RJD in dilemma after Congress, NCP back Nitish
Patna:With the Congress and the NCP backing JD-U leader Nitish Kumar as the chief ministerial candidate in the coming Bihar elections, Lalu Prasad’s RJD is in a dilemma.
With Nitish Kumar projecting a secular and progressive image, the Congress wants to support at the head of a “secular alliance” to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The National Congress Party (NCP) is all for Nitish Kumar.
This has put pressure on Lalu Prasad to take a call – either to accept Nitish Kumar as the leader of a common alliance or go it alone.
After the Congress publicly decided to ally with the JD-U, NCP leader Tariq Anwar supported the idea.
The Congress and NCP support has given an advantage to Nitish Kumar vis-a-vis Lalu Prasad.
“Nitish Kumar’s image as one who has tried to develop Bihar and provided good governance has forced the Congress to side with him,” said Congress leader Ashok Choudhary.
“The Congress has to project someone who can aggressively counter (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi’s development plank in the polls,” he added.
On his part, Nitish Kumar made it clear on Monday that the JD-U would go for a tie-up with the Congress.
“We enjoy very good relations with the Congress. It has been supporting our government,” he said. “We want it to contest the election in alliance with us.”
Nitish Kumar’s comments come at a time when RJD leader Raghuvansh Prasad Singh has come out against projecting Nitish Kumar as the chief ministerial candidate of a possible RJD-JD-U alliance.
The Congress threw its weight behind Nitish Kumar after its vice president Rahul Gandhi preferred the JD-U leader over Lalu Prasad.
“Even ahead of the Lok Sabha polls (last year), Rahul was inclined to go with Nitish Kumar. But (Congress president) Sonia Gandhi opted for Lalu,” said another senior Congress leader, Ashok Yadav.
Sonia Gandhi also wants an alliance with the JD-U but she is equally keen to partnering with Lalu Prasad so as to consolidate all anti-BJP votes.
The BJP is divided over who its chief ministerial candidate should be.
JD-U leaders feel that the Congress support to Nitish Kumar will provide him bargaining power when Nitish Kumar talks to the RJD.
“With the Congress and the NCP with Nitish Kumar, the JD-U will bargain hard with the RJD and even look for alternative political alignments minus the RJD for the election,” JD-U leader Sanjay Singh said.
According to some JD-U leaders, the Congress still retains strong support among minorities, upper castes and Mahadalits.
“In the last Lok Sabha election, the JD-U contested alone and secured only 15.5 percent of votes. But the RJD contested along with the Congress and performed much better than us,” said a JD-U leader.
Congress sources said the JD-U and the RJD were expected to contest at least 100 seats each and leave 43 seats for the Congress, the Left parties and the NCP.
The JD-U won 115 seats in the last assembly polls when it was allied with the BJP. The BJP won 91 seats. The RJD got 22 seats and the Congress only four.
However, differences over Modi’s elevation in the BJP led to the JD-U walking out of the alliance in 2013.
The Bihar election will be the first popularity test after the Modi government completed its first year in office in May.
The results are expected to have a wider political resonance amid efforts by Rahul Gandhi to brand the Modi government as “anti-farmer” and “anti-poor”.
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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