Feature
Advani, Joshi missing from star BJP campaigners’ list for Bihar
Patna: Veteran BJP leaders Lal Krishna Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi as well as Bollywood actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha are missing from a list of star campaigners for the BJP-led NDA ahead of the Bihar assembly polls.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who helped the BJP ride to power at the Centre after 10 years, would be the star campaigner for the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
“In the first list of 40 star campaigners prepared by the BJP, the names of Advani, Joshi and (party MP) Shatrughan Sinha are missing,” a BJP leader said here on Thursday.
This will be first time when the names of the trio are missing from the list of BJP star campaigners for either assembly or Lok Sabha polls in Bihar.
Another senior BJP leader told IANS on the condition of anonymity that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP president Amit Shah, union ministers Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, Radha Mohan Singh, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Giriraj Singh, Manohar Parrikar, Anant Kumar and Dharmendra Pradhan would be the star campaigners for the NDA.
Besides, other leaders, including former union ministers and senior party leaders from Bihar, have also been enlisted for campaigning for the BJP and its allies.
“But the main star campaigner will be Modi, as he is most popular in Bihar and elsewhere,” the BJP leader said.
Modi is likely to address nearly a dozen ‘Parivartan’ rallies to seek votes during the campaign ahead of the five-phase assembly polls beginning on October 12.
Modi has already addressed four such rallies in Muzaffarpur, Gaya, Saharsa and Bhagalpur districts.
The BJP leaders said that party workers were happy with the public response to Modi’s rallies so far.
The high-tech ‘Parivartan Rath’ campaign has already touched base with most of the 243 assembly constituencies in the state. BJP party president Amit Shah flagged off 160 GPS-fitted raths (chariots) in July to reach out to people in all villages across Bihar.
However, the BJP is yet to finalise the seat-sharing arrangement with its allies, with reports indicating that the Lok Janshakti Party, Rashtriya Lok Samata Party and Hindustani Awam Morcha are staking claim to more seats.
This has put the BJP in a quandary as the Election Commission announced the dates for assembly polls on Wednesday.
On the other hand, the Janata Dal-United, Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Congress have finalised their seat-sharing arrangement and are likely to announce the names of their respective candidates soon.
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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