Feature
Mayawati ends all kind of feuds with Mulayam by seeking votes for him in LS polls
Lucknow: Burying her 25-year-old bitter feud with Samajwadi Party (SP) founder Mulayam Singh Yadav, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati will seek support for him at an election rally in Mainpuri on April 19, SP spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary said on Friday.
The rally would be addressed by Mayawati, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) President Ajit Singh. Mulayam Singh has been named the SP candidate from Mainpuri.
The SP and BSP chiefs will hold 11 joint rallies to seek support for the SP-BSP-RLD alliance which has been stitched just before the Lok Sabha elections scheduled for April and May.
Chaudhary said that the joint rallies would be held to ensure “victories of alliance candidates and ouster of the BJP from the centre”.
The rallies would also send a message that the workers and supporters of both the parties had set aside their political rivalry and joined ranks to defeat the BJP, he added.
BSP supremo Mayawati avoids 25-year-old bitter feud with Mulayam by seeking votes for him:
All publicity materials from now on will have the pictures of Mayawati and Mulayam Singh with a prominent display of the election symbols of SP and BSP.
Akilesh Yadav and Mayawati will also address rallies at Deoband in Saharanpur (April 7), Badaun (April 13), Agra (April 16), Mainpuri (April 19), Rampur and Firozabad (April 20).
Firozabad will witness a big battle at the hustings between SP-BSP candidate Akshay Yadav, cousin of Akhilesh Yadav, and his estranged uncle and Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party-Lohia (PSP-L) President Shivpal Singh Yadav.
After a brief break, Mayawati and Akhilesh yadav will address rallies at Dimple Yadav’s constituency Kannauj on April 25, Faizabad (May 1), Azamgarh (May 8) and Gorakhpur (May 13). The joint campaign will conclude with a rally in Varanasi, the constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on May 16.
The SP is contesting 37 seats under the seat sharing deal while the BSP will contest 38 seats. Three seats have gone to the RLD while two seats, Amethi and Rae Bareli, have been left for the Congress.
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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