Feature
Biggest jolt to Mayawati as Bhim Army extends support to Congress party
Lucknow: In an unexpected move, the Bhim Army has announced its support to the Congress that is bound to upset the Bahujan Samaj Party’s apple cart in western Uttar Pradesh where eight constituencies go to polls on Thursday in the first phase.
“We are going to support the Congress candidate in Saharanpur,” said Bhim Army chief Chandra Shekhar ‘Azad’ late on Tuesday. He refused to comment on other seats.
Besides Saharanpur, there is also Kairana, Muzaffarnagar, Bijnor, Meerut, Baghpat, Ghaziabad and Gautam Buddha Nagar that will vote on April 11.
It was in Saharanpur on Sunday that the BSP president had appealed to Muslims to vote en masse for the alliance and not to split their votes by opting for Congress.
Interestingly, in her rally, a large participation of the Bhim Army volunteers who carried placards with photographs of Chandra Shekhar, was seen and this is said to have upset the BSP president who later blasted her party workers.
This development is particularly disturbing for Mayawati since the Bhim Army chief also belongs to the Jatav sub caste among Dalits.
Mayawati, till now, has enjoyed complete supremacy over this caste to which she belongs. Chandra Shekhar has proudly put up a board saying “The Great Chamar” outside his village Dhadkauli in Saharanpur.
“The Bhim Army has played a very clever game. Chandra Shekhar kept praising the BSP but Mayawati kept snubbing him and dubbing him a BJP agent.
In unexpected move Bhim Army keeps Mayawati aside extends support to Congress:
“He has now played the masterstroke by announcing support to the Congress at a time when there is no time left for any damage control. The BSP will now realise the strength of the Bhim Army,” said Kumar Gautam, a Bhim Army supporter.
The Congress had sensed the growing popularity of the Bhim Army and had been quietly cultivating Chandra Shekhar.
Imran Masood, the Congress candidate in Saharanpur, had been regularly visiting Chandra Shekhar while he was in jail for over 15 months.
More recently, when Chandra Shekhar was hospitalised, Congress General Secretary for eastern Uttar Pradesh Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Pradesh Congress chief Raj Babbar had visited him in hospital.
That the BSP’s vote base has been steadily eroding after 2007 is evident from the fact that they have been steadily losing on reserved seats.
In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the BSP failed to win even a single seat. In the 2017 Assembly polls, it was the BJP that won on 76 out of 86 Reserved Assembly seats.
The BSP’s vote share has also gone down from 30.43 per cent in 2007. In the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, the BSP vote share came down to 27.4 per cent.
In 2012 Assembly polls, the party’s vote percentage was 25.9 which came down to 20 per cent in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. The party vote share marginally improved in the 2017 assembly elections with 22.3 per cent.
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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