They are giving the Malkajgiri Lok Sabha seat to the TDP, Musheerabad to the BJP and the Khairatabad Assembly seat to the YSR Congress.
And now the election in Telangana over and the destiny of the candidates sealed in EVMs till May 16, the intense political battle in quite a few constituencies in the region has provided a golden opportunity to punters.
With predictions that several candidates, which also include some high profile politicians, will win by narrow margins, heavy betting is going on about the winning candidates and their victory margins. This new betting opportunity has pushed the betting on IPL to the back seat.
Malkajgiri Lok Sabha constituency is the hot favorite for punters in the state capital where all five major political parties have fielded strong contestants. The largest constituency in terms of voters in the country, the battle for Malkajgiri seat was fought among Sarve Satyanarayana of the Congress, TDP’s Ch Malla Reddy, Loksatta’s
Jayprakash Narayan, TRS’ Mynampalli Hanumantha Rao and YSRCP’s V Dinesh Reddy.
Have a feeling that the battle was fiercely fought, after the polling on April 30, the betting organizers set in motion to contact punters and as of now the TDP candidate appears to be the punter’s favorite.
“Of the 130 punters involved in betting so far, about 50 have placed their money on Malla Reddy, followed by Congress, Loksatta and TRS candidates. YSRCP’s candidate Dinesh Reddy played a dark horse’s role and took a major chunk of Congress votes,” said betting organizer A Avinash (name changed), from Alwal.
As per Avinash, the lowest bet he has taken is Rs 10,000 and the maximum until now went up to Rs 6 lakh in support of a TDP candidate. If the candidate that one bets on emerges the winner, the money he has placed is doubled.
However, it is not as fierce as in Malkajgiri, betting is also on in Secunderabad constituency and has BJP candidate Bandaru Dattatreya as the front-runner.
“In addition to Modi, the Telangana factor and anti-incumbency have also worked in favour of Dattatreya and that was the reason for major cross-voting in places like Khairatabad, Sanathnagar and Jubilee Hills where the Congress won in the previous elections. That’s why Dattatreya is the punter’s favorite,”said Karan Chand, a punter from Nampally.