As the D-day for declaration of results of the Parliament polls draws closer, punters are betting big on the fortunes of parties and contesting candidates with Hyderabad as their base.
The bettings are mainly over whether YSRC president Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy would become the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh; whether TRS would win sixteen seats as it has claimed; and whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi would return as Prime Minister with an absolute majority for BJP.
Sources said the betting amount ranges from ₹5,000 to lakhs of rupees and done both online and offline. With intelligence inputs from political circles, the bookies have managed to assess the situation and have formed WhatsApp groups to invite bettings in a coded language. Real estate dealers and industrialists are said to have donned the role of bookies and leaders and workers of various political parties have become easy targets in the gamble. The bookies have received bets from Telugu-speaking people in other States and abroad as well, the sources added.
The declaration of exit poll results by TV channels on Sunday fuelled the betting menace and the same has reached a peak as the announcement of real-time results draws closer. The fate of K. Kavitha, Nizamabad MP and daughter of Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, has also turned out to be an aspect to bet on. Similarly, people have also bet on the fortunes of Congress candidates N. Uttam Kumar Reddy, Konda Visweswara Reddy and A. Revanth Reddy, who are contesting from Nalgonda, Chevella and Malkajgiri constituencies respectively, and BJP candidate from Mahabubnagar D.K. Aruna.
The margin of victory in Hyderabad, Medak and Warangal are the other bets raised by the bookies. The MIM won with a huge margin in 2014 Parliament elections and the TRS surpassed all the records in winning in Medak and Warangal in the by-elections subsequently.
In Andhra Pradesh, bettings are on Mangalagiri Assembly constituency where Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu’s son N. Lokesh is in fray.