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Congress leader Sonia Gandhi did ‘havan’ with family before filing nomination papers
Lucknow: UPA Chairperson and Congress leader Sonia Gandhi filed her nomination papers for the Rae Bareli Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh on Thursday and declared that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was not invincible.
Congress President Rahul Gandhi, who accompanied his mother Sonia Gandhi, again mounted a blistering attack on the Prime Minister.
“There have been many people in Indian history who had the arrogance to believe that they are invincible and bigger than the people of the country,” he said.
“Modi has done nothing for the people in the past five years and his invincibility will be there for all to see after elections.”
Rahul Gandhi reiterated his challenge for a debate with the Prime Minister and said that he was ready to go over to the Race Course Road if Modi wanted.
Sonia Gandhi told reporters that she was confident of the love of the people of Rae Bareli.
Asked whether she believed that Modi was invincible, she said “Remember 2004. Vajpayeeji was (considered) invincible but we won.”
Sonia Gandhi was also accompanied by Congress General Secretary and her daughter Priyanka Gandhi, her husband Robert Vadra and their children.
They earlier performed a ‘havan’ at the Congress office before the roadshow.
Thousands of supporters and party workers carrying party flags and cut-outs of their leaders were a part of the show of strength.
UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi performs ‘havan’ before filing nomination papers with Rahul-Priyanka:
After filing her nomination papers, Sonia Gandhi visited the home of late Maulana Ali Miyan, a renowned cleric. She also held a meeting with party workers.
Sonia Gandhi is trying to retain the Rae Bareli seat for the fifth time. She had won the seat in 2004, 2006 (by-polls), 2009 and 2014.
In 2014, there were 15.94 lakh voters in the constituency and the poll percentage was 51.73 per cent, in which Sonia Gandhi had got 5,26,434 votes.
Rae Bareli will vote in the fifth-phase on May 6 and will see a straight contest between Sonia Gandhi and Dinesh Pratap Singh, who recently joined the BJP after leaving the Congress.
The Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party have not fielded any candidate in this Congress bastion.
It is noteworthy that since 1957, the Congress has won the seat 19 times, including three by-elections, and lost the seat only thrice – 1977, 1996 and 1998.
In 1977, after Emergency, Bhartiya Lok Dal’s Raj Narain had defeated the then prime minister Indira Gandhi and in 1996 and 1998 BJP candidate Ashok Kumar Singh had won the seat. Sonia Gandhi was not in the fray then.
The seat has been held mostly by members of the Nehru-Gandhi family including Feroze Gandhi, Indira Gandhi, Arun Nehru and Sheila Kaul in the past.
Meanwhile, a green laser light was seen pointing to Rahul Gandhi’s head while he interacted with the media. This was seen later in the video recordings and the Congress promptly demanded an inquiry into this security lapse.
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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