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BSP supremo Mayawati to contest Lok Sabha, Assembly polls alone
Lucknow: The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati today made it clear that her political group will contest all upcoming elections including Lok Sabha and State Assembly polls (Vidhan Sabha) at their own prestige.
The BSP chief Mayawati said on Thursday that while her party ‘favoured’ joining hands with secular parties in Lok Sabha and state polls, it will do so only if it gets a respectable number of seats to contest.
The BSP supremo made the comments at the meeting of party coordinators here ahead of municipal body elections in Uttar Pradesh.
All office bearers of the party were present in this meeting. BSP is going to contest municipal body elections in state on its own symbol after a gap of almost 17 years.
Mayawati also slammed other political parties for defaming her party on the charges of dynasty politics. “The hunt for an able leader to take forward the BSP movement is still on and that is why for the time being my brother Anand Kumar is taking care of the responsibilities. My nephew Akash is also helping his father along with his studies and no responsibility of the party is given to him as of now,” she said.
“Our party is in favour of fighting the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections in alliance with any secular party, but only when it gets a respectable number of seats in seat sharing or else it would go alone,” Mayawati said, as quoted by media persons.
The BSP national president also made it clear that any partymen entering the fray as independents will be expelled.
Referring to recent efforts at seat sharing, she said that the Congress did not approve sharing 25 seats in Gujarat and 10 in Himachal Pradesh, all which it had lost in the previous polls.
Senior BSP leader S C Mishra held detailed talks with Ahmed Patel of the Congress and dejected over the results he has now stopped advocating contesting elections in alliance, she said.
BSP chief Mayawati to fight upcoming Lok Sabha, State Assembly polls all alone
“Mishra is also unhappy with the stance of the Samajwadi Party in this matter…The past experience with the SP has also not been good,” the former chief minister was quoted saying to journalists.
She claimed that contesting in alliance had not benefitted her party in the past, therefore it was better that the BSP contests the Assembly and Lok Sabha polls alone for which it will work towards increasing support base among the “sarv samaj” like in the 2007 UP Assembly polls.
Following the BJP spectacular performance in Uttar Pradesh in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and then the state polls, earlier this year, there has been much speculation that BSP may enter into an alliance with parties like the Congress and the SP in the forthcoming polls.
The BSP president also took the opportunity to inform her partymen that her coming birthday on January 15 will be celebrated as “Jan Kalyankari Divas” like earlier years and valuable gifts will not be accepted.
“Instead, partymen need to work hard to strengthen the party and get the master key of power…That will be the most valuable present for me,” she said.
Exhorting partymen to foil BJP “tactics and the misuse of official machinery” in the urban local bodies elections, she alleged that ever since the saffron party had come to power, it had become a bigger “jumlebaaz” (empty rhetoric) party which is out to tarnish the image of opposition leaders instead of working for the people.
She termed BJP’s ‘Sankalp Patra’ or manifesto for the urban local elections an an “eyewash” issued by a party that had failed to fulfill its promises.
She alleged that along with a “casteist” BJP, a section of the media was also trying to tarnish the image of the BSP leadership by raising baseless allegations.
“Under such a design, a canard is being spread that the BSP chief is pushing up her brother and nephew in the party organisation….Everyone knows that the BSP is not a family based party like the Congress and SP…Responsibility has been given to Anand Kumar (brother) out of compulsion, as a strong and mature leadership which can take the responsibility is not yet ready,” she added.
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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