Hyderabad:The betting odds in Telangana favour the Telangana Rashtra Samiti to form the new government with the Congress coming in second. The odds offered here are on TRS crossing 65 Assembly seats and the Congress getting about 30.
Bookies are offering odds of 1:1 on these bets, i.e. one gets back double the amount invested. With the TRS having a clear edge in Telangana, punters seem to be more interested in individual contests. For instance there is huge betting going on regarding the YSR Congress candidate winning in Khammam with a 60,000-70,000 majority.
“Betting on the YSR Congress winning in Khammam that too with a majority, has crossed several crores,” said a city-based punter.
In Hyderabad, BJP candidate for the Secunderabad Lok Sabha constituency, Mr Bandaru Dattatreya, is a favourite to win among punters.
“There is a belief that several factors have worked in the favour of Bandaru including the Modi wave and Telangana sentiment. Besides, huge chunk of cross voting in the places where Congress won in the previous elections seems to have taken place,” explained another punter.
There is also a lot of interest in the Malkajgiri Lok Sabha constituency where there is a fight between heavyweights of all the five political parties.
“The battle here was tough among all the parties. However, it will be a close one between TD’s Ch Malla Reddy and Sarve Satyanarayana of the Congress. There is also a lot of betting on Lok Satta's Jayprakash Narayan, TRS’ Mynampalli Hanumantha Rao and YSRC’s V. Dinesh Reddy,” said the punter.
Betting will continue till the election results are announced on May 16.
“The bets are placed through phone calls or SMS,” said one of the punters.
