Feature
In 3rd phase of Lok Sabha elections UP records 60 pc voter turnout
Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh recorded a voter turnout of over 60 per cent in the 10 constituencies where polling took place in the third phase on Tuesday, election officials said.
Prominent UP leaders in the fray in this phase are four members of Samajwadi Party patron Mulayam Singh Yadav’s clan, besides senior party leader Azam Khan and actor-turned BJP candidate Jaya Prada.
The overall voting percentage was 60.52 per cent, UP’s Chief Electoral Officer L Venkateshwar Lu told reporters after polling closed at 6 pm. He said polling was held peacefully in the state.
There were complaints of electronic voting machines (EVMs) malfunctioning at some booths and they were promptly attended to, he had said earlier.
The SP lodged a complaint over the alleged malfunctioning of EVMs with the Election Commission, terming it criminal negligence.
A report from Sambhal said some EVMs developed snags in Chandausi and Asmoli assembly segments of the Aonla Lok Sabha seat.
In Pilibhit, polling at a sensitive booth in Kukrikheda started late by about an hour due to faulty EVMs.
At a booth in Etah zila panchayat, presiding officer Yogesh Kumar was removed after people accused him of forcing them to cast their votes in favour of the SP.
SP leader and former chairman of Bhargain Nagar Panchayat, Ahmed Nafis, was taken into custody in Kasganj in Etah after authorities anticipated breach of peace. He was to be placed in police custody till 6 pm, officials said.
SP MP Dharmendra Yadav, who is seeking re-election from Badaun, lodged a complaint against senior state minister Swami Prasad Maurya, claiming that he was campaigning in the constituency for his daughter and BJP candidate Sanghmitra Maurya.
But a raid at a house by district administration officials failed to locate him.
Over record 60 percent voting registered in UP during Lok Sabha polls:
Poll rules bar party leaders from camping in a constituency after campaigning ends, unless they themselves are registered voters there.
The Uttar Pradesh seats where polling took place Tuesday are spread over the Rohilkhand region, where the BJP had won seven out of the 10 seats in 2014.
SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav (Mainpuri) and nephews Dharmendra Yadav and Akshay Yadav (Badaun) and Akshay Yadav (Firozabad) are seeking re-election.
Pitted against Akshay Yadav, son of Mulayam Singh Yadav’s cousin Ram Gopal Yadav, is Shivpal Yadav, another brother of the SP patriarch.
Shivpal Yadav floated a new political outfit, Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia), after falling out with SP president Akhilesh Yadav.
In 2014, Mulayam Singh had won both the Mainpuri and Azamgarh seats, but vacated the first one, which was won by another family member Tej Pratap Singh in a bye-election.
Senior SP leader Azam Khan is contesting from Rampur which witnessed a new low in campaigning this time with the controversial leader making a derogatory remark against BJP candidate Jaya Prada.
Other political heavyweights in Tuesday’s test include Union Minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar, who is fighting from Bareilly and BJP’s Varun Gandhi from Pilibhit.
Altogether 1.76 crore voters were eligible to exercise their franchise in this phase at 20,116 polling booths. Some 120 candidates are in the fray for the 10 seats.
With three polling phases nationwide over now, voting has taken place in 26 of the 80 Lok Sabha constituencies in Uttar Pradesh.
The Bharatiya Janata Party here faces an alliance of the Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Rashtriya Lok Dal.
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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