Feature
After 15 years BJP sets to retain power in Uttar Pradesh
Lucknow: Proving wrong fears of a hung assembly, the BJP was set to sweep back to power in Uttar Pradesh on Saturday after 15 long years, giving Prime Minister Narendra Modi his biggest victory after the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
Powered by an aggressive campaign spearheaded by Modi, BJP candidates were on the road to victory in a whopping 306 of the 403 constituencies as officials counted the millions of votes polled in the staggered election. The imminent victory triggered widespread celebrations all across the country’s most populous state as well as at the BJP headquarters in Delhi.
As the Samajwadi Party, the Congress and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) licked their wounds, Bharatiya Janata Party leader and central Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad called the win in UP bigger than the 2014 victory.
“It is a tectonic shift in Indian politics,” he said. “UP is a laboratory of India. Demonetisation has worked and we are proud of Modi’s leadership. It is a bigger victory than the 2014 win in the Lok Sabha election.”
BJP candidates led in all major cities in particular, including in five of the eight seats in Lucknow, eight of the 10 seats in Kanpur, nine of the 12 seats in Allahabad and seven of the eight seats in Varanasi, Modi’s Lok Sabha constituency.
Even in Amethi, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi’s Lok Sabha seat, the BJP’s Garima Singh had forged ahead.
After more than three hours of vote count that began at 8 a.m., the Samajwadi-Congress alliance was in the lead in 71 constituencies while the BSP was gasping in just 17 seats.
There was no immediate reaction from Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, who is set to resign, but Congress leaders expressed shock.
“It is a monumental setback. We are disappointed with Uttar Pradesh,” Congress spokesman Sanjay Jha said. Added Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit, whose mother and former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit was originally to be the Congress Chief Ministerial candidate: “Our party is looking confused.”
BJP MP Yogi Adityanath told media persons: “Good work done by the Modi government and (BJP President) Amit Shah’s strategy has paid dividends.
“People have rejected the politics of appeasement and discrimination,” he said, in reference to the poor showing by the Samajwadi Party and the Congress as well as the Mayawati-led BSP.
Election officials said the BJP began taking strong leads right from the start of the counting and it became clear within an hour that it was set to comfortably take power in Uttar Pradesh.
BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra added: “The victory goes to Modi for his hard work, for his vision, for his pro-poor agenda. He is the first Prime Minister in contemporary times who really worked for the poor.”
Minister of State in the PMO Jitendra Singh said: “For the first time we are seeing people rising above caste in Uttar Pradesh. The voters have moved a step ahead of politicians.”
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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