Feature
J.P. Nadda to succeed Amit Shah as new BJP President for Saffron party
New Delhi: With BJP organisational architect Amit Shah set to join the Cabinet, the decks are being cleared for the baton to be handed over to Health Minister J.P. Nadda as the new President.
Nadda is expected to work closely with Shah even after the latter demits office for the election whirligig simply doesn’t end.
Once the Union Budget is out of the way on July 10 (in all probability), then sometime in September this year, three states will go to the polls — Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Haryana.
Nadda will then oversee the election campaign strategy. Thereafter there is a possibility of polls in Jammu and Kashmir and even a highly wobbly Karnataka where the coalition appears to be skating on thin ice. Early next year, the battle for Delhi will gain precedence over everything else.
Fifty nine-year-old Nadda is a Brahmin and a Rajya Sabha member who keeps a low profile but is also parliamentary board secretary of the BJP. Nadda is known as a master strategist in his party. The party had given him charge of Uttar Pradesh in the recently concluded hustings. The party bagged 62 out of 80 Lok Sabha seats. Apna Dal bagged two against a caste calculus driven combine of BSP and SP.
JP Nadda to be new successor of Amit Shah as BJP President for Saffron party:
Educated at St. Xaviers School, Patna, Nadda thereafter did his B.A. from Patna College, Patna University and LL.B. from Himachal Pradesh University, Shimla. He is three time MLA in the Himachal Assembly. He came to the upper house from Himachal Pradesh and was appointed Minister in 2014.
He now has to meet the exacting standards set by Amit Shah. With the BJP securing a fresh beach head in the south in Telengana where it has won four seats along with 23 in Karnataka, Nadda is expected to focus on operation south to expand the BJP’s footprint and become truly pan Indian.
A confident Nadda during his first visit to Lucknow after being appointed Uttar Pradesh election in-charge in January this year had exuded confidence that the BJP will win 74 Lok Sabha seats out of 80 in Uttar Pradesh and downplayed the SP-BSP alliance in the state for the general elections.
At a meeting with senior office bearers of the party, Nadda, had predicted that the BJP would register a handsome win in the Lok Sabha polls and all records will be broken — “We shall increase our tally of Lok Sabha seats from the state by winning 74 seats, one more than last time.”
In the 2014 general elections, the BJP had won 71 Lok Sabha seats in the state and two other went to its ally — the Apna Dal. The BJP won 62 against a tough opposition while the alliance only managed 15.
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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