Feature
Jayalalithaa juggernaut rolls down opposition
Chennai: AIADMK general secretary and Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa returned to the Tamil Nadu assembly on Tuesday crushing the opposition by a by a record victory margin from the Radkhakrishnan Nagar constituency here.
Jayalalithaa polled 160,432 votes while her nearest rival, Communist Party of India’s (CPI) C. Mahendran, got just 9,710 votes — a victory margin of a whopping 150,722 votes.
The total electorate in the constituency was around 245,000, and the chief minister bagged 65 percent of all votes polled.
Going by the votes polled by Jayalalithaa, it is clear the vote banks of the opposition parties which boycotted the polls fell into her kitty and did not go to the CPI.
Mahendran was followed by independent candidate and social activist K.R. Ramaswamy, popularly known as “Traffic Ramaswamy” (4,590 votes) while 2,376 people opted for `None of the Above’ category.
While there were 28 candidates in the fray, only CPI’s Mahendran was viewed as a serious opponent for Jayalalithaa.
As noisy celebrations erupted at the AIADMK headquarters and outside Jayalalithaa’s residence, Tamil Nadu Governor K. Rosaiah congratulated her over her landslide win.
Central Minister of State for Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Pon Radhakrishnan of the Bharatiya Janata Party conveyed his “heartfelt greetings” to Jayalalithaa on her mega victory.
AIADMK activists and leaders generously distributed sweets to all and sundry and burst crackers to celebrate.
An elated Jayalalithaa thanked voters and AIADMK supporters for her victory and said the result was a forerunner for the 2016 assembly election.
This is the seventh by-election victory for the AIADMK since it came to power in 2011. The party has won all the by-elections held since 2011.
In 2006, AIADMK’s P.K. Sekarbabu polled 84,462 votes in Radhakrishnan Nagar. In 2011, P. Vetrivel of AIADMK got 83,777 votes and defeated Sekarbabu, who by then was in the DMK. Vetrivel’s victory margin was over 31,000 votes.
Major opposition parties like the DMK, the PMK, the DMDK, the Congress, the BJP and the MDMK stayed away from the contest on different pretexts.
The CPI and the CPI-M fielded Mahendran as their joint candidate.
The Radhakrishnan Nagar seat fell vacant after AIADMK’s Vetrivel resigned from the house to facilitate Jayalalithaa’s re-election to the assembly.
Jayalalithaa, elected from Srirangam in 2011, lost that seat and the chief minister’s post after a trial court in Bengaluru convicted her in the disproportionate assets case.
The Karnataka High Court upheld her appeal and acquitted her of all charges. Jayalalithaa was again sworn in as chief minister, but she has to get elected to the assembly within six months.
The Karnataka government has gone on appeal against the high court order in the Supreme Court.
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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