Feature
Elections result of assembly polls make road bumpier for BJP
New Delhi: A clear win for the BJP in the next General Elections appears more challenging after its worst electoral setbacks since 2014 with a resurgent Congress getting better of it in saffron strongholds.
Used to scenes of jubilations and triumphant speeches from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah after almost every round of state polls, the BJP headquarters wore a subdued look as its top brass mulled over the losses in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan.
The Congress appeared set to form governments in Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, while the contest in Madhya Pradesh remained a cliffhanger as the counting progressed.
The win of Mizo National Front, which is a member of the BJP-led North East Democratic Alliance, in Mizoram was of little solace for the party, as it stared at its losses in the three states, which had in 2014 elected 62 BJP MPs of the total 65 they send to Lok Sabha.
The BJP had won 282 seats in the 543-member House in 2014 and its unprecedented triumph was powered by its near sweep of the Hindi heartland and the western states of Gujarat and Maharashtra.
It barely scraped through in the Gujarat assembly polls last year, and its now poor show in the three states coupled with the likely alliance of the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party in Uttar Pradesh has made the road ahead much more difficult for the party.
A couple of BJP leaders acknowledged that the party would have to revisit its strategy and work on its messaging, while emphasising that it can be done only after these results are analysed threadbare.
Results show that the BJP has fared poorly in rural regions, underlining the need for the party to challenge issues like farm distress and unemployment.
State assembly poll losses make road ahead bumpier for the BJP:
Asked if the recent amping up of the Hindutva agenda, like talks about building Ram Temple in Ayodhya and controversial remarks made by many of its leaders including UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, failed to pay off, a party leader said a conclusion can be drawn only after analysing ground reports.
It will take time but the party will certainly evaluate as to what went wrong, he said on condition of anonymity.
Shah’s plan of harvesting a rich tally of seats in five southern states also appears derailed as of now after the BJP came a distant third in Telangana and has shown little signs of any revival in other states, except Karnataka where it has long been a strong force.
The party, politics watchers believe, would have to go back to the drawing board as its losses across the states indicate the reasons for its defeat were not local alone and had a much wider resonance.
This is also the first since the Modi led his party to its first majority government at the Centre in 2014 that the Congress has got better of the BJP in a direct contest.
The BJP defeated the opposition party in assembly elections in Maharashtra, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat and emerged as the single largest party in Karnataka.
A resurgent Congress and its president Rahul Gandhi are sure to keep the heat on the BJP, with these wins making them much better placed in terms of political standing and resources to take on the saffron juggernaut.
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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