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Muslims, Yadavs will count in Bihar’s final round
Patna: The last of 57 assembly constituencies in Bihar go to the polls on Thursday in a sprawling region home to a sizeable Muslim and Yadav population who everyone is aggressively wooing.
The fifth and final round of polling will take place in some of Bihar’s most backward pockets notorious for high percentage of poverty, illiteracy as well as migration.
The seven districts that will see voting are Kishanganj, Purnea, Araria and Katihar in Seemanchal region and Saharsa, Madhepura and Supaul in Kosi region.
Both the BJP-led four-party alliance led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Grand Alliance of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar were locked in a bitter war of words before campaigning ended on Tuesday evening.
Muslims form 16.5 percent of Bihar’s 105 million population. In the Seemanchal, however, they account for nearly 67 percent in Kishanganj, 37 percent in Purnea, 43 percent in Katihar and nearly 40 percent in Araria.
Yadavs live in large numbers in Madhepura and Saharsa in particular.
“Muslims and Yadavs will play a major role (on Thursday),” political activist Mahender Yadav said.
Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi’s Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) is contesting from six seats in Seemanchal region. This is the MIM’s first entry in Bihar’s electoral politics.
Controversial politician Pappu Yadav’s Jan Adhikar Party is also in the fray in Kosi region. Both Owaisi and Pappu Yadav are wooing Muslim and Yadav voters.
Nationalist Congress Party leader Tariq Anwar is also confident of making a dent in his stronghold Katihar.
The fifth phase is crucial for Nitish Kumar and his allies RJD leader Lalu Prasad and the Congress as well as the Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA in the keen battle to control the 243-seat Bihar assembly.
The BJP has been eyeing the Seemanchal assembly seats, banking on a possible division of Muslim votes.
In Kosi region, sensing the difficult challenge, BJP president Amit Shah had ordered party leaders to make Madhepura, Saharsa and Supaul their base during campaigning.
“Amit Shah has been working overtime for more than two weeks in the region,” a BJP source said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed election meetings in each district and mounted a strong attack on Nitish Kumar, Lalu Prasad and Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
The BJP is banking heavily on Modi’s appeal and is confident of the support of the upper castes – Brahmins, Bhumihar, Rajputs – and also hopes to gain the backing of other communities.
Allied with the BJP are the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) of Ram Vilas Paswan and the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) of Upendra Kushwaha — both union ministers — and the Hindustani Awam Morcha of former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi.
In Seemanchal, the dominant mood among the Muslims appears to be anti-BJP.
Most Yadavs are likely to throw their weight behind Lalu Prasad and the Grand Alliance.
The BJP is hopeful of gaining an upper hand in Madhubani and Darbhanga districts.
About 1.55 crore voters will be eligible to decide the political fate of 827 candidates on Thursday.
In what critics said was an attempt to polarize voters on religious lines, BJP leaders raked up the issue of beef consumption and said that a BJP defeat in Bihar would set off celebrations in Pakistan.
Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad were equally aggressive in their campaign.
The millions of votes polled in the staggered elections that began on October 12 will be counted on November 8.
International online casino Casino Days has published a report sharing their internal data on what types and brands of devices are used to play on the platform by users from the South Asian region.
Such aggregate data analyses allow the operator to optimise their website for the brands and models of devices people are actually using.
The insights gained through the research also help Casino Days tailor their services based on the better understanding of their clients and their needs.
Desktops and Tablets Lose the Battle vs Mobile
The primary data samples analysed by Casino Days reveal that mobile connections dominate the market in South Asia and are responsible for a whopping 96.6% of gaming sessions, while computers and tablets have negligible shares of 2.9% and 0.5% respectively.
The authors of the study point out that historically, playing online casino was exclusively done on computers, and attribute thе major shift to mobile that has unfolded over time to the wide spread of cheaper smartphones and mobile data plans in South Asia.
“Some of the reasons behind this massive difference in device type are affordability, technical advantages, as well as cheaper and more obtainable internet plans for mobiles than those for computers,” the researchers comment.
Xiaomi and Vivo Outperform Samsung, Apple Way Down in Rankings
Chinese brands Xiaomi and Vivo were used by 21.9% and 20.79% of Casino Days players from South Asia respectively, and together with the positioned in third place with a 18.1% share South Korean brand Samsung dominate the market among real money gamers in the region.
Cupertino, California-based Apple is way down in seventh with a user share of just 2.29%, overshadowed by Chinese brands Realme (11.43%), OPPO (11.23%), and OnePlus (4.07%).
Huawei is at the very bottom of the chart with a tiny share just below the single percent mark, trailing behind mobile devices by Motorola, Google, and Infinix.
The data on actual phone usage provided by Casino Days, even though limited to the gaming parts of the population of South Asia, paints a different picture from global statistics on smartphone shipments by vendors.
Apple and Samsung have been sharing the worldwide lead for over a decade, while current regional leader Xiaomi secured their third position globally just a couple of years ago.
Striking Android Dominance among South Asian Real Money Gaming Communities
The shifted market share patterns of the world’s top smartphone brands in South Asia observed by the Casino Days research paper reveal a striking dominance of Android devices at the expense of iOS-powered phones.
On the global level, Android enjoys a comfortable lead with a sizable 68.79% share which grows to nearly 79% when we look at the whole continent of Asia. The data on South Asian real money gaming communities suggests that Android’s dominance grows even higher and is north of the 90% mark.
Among the major factors behind these figures, the authors of the study point to the relative affordability of and greater availability of Android devices in the region, especially when manufactured locally in countries like India and Vietnam.
“And, with influencers and tech reviews putting emphasis on Android devices, the choice of mobile phone brand and OS becomes easy; Android has a much wider range of products and caters to the Asian online casino market in ways that Apple can’t due to technical limitations,” the researchers add.
The far better integration achieved by Google Pay compared to its counterpart Apple Pay has also played a crucial role in shaping the existing smartphone market trends.
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