Raipur: In a cricket crazy nation, political leaders seldom figure in the betting scene. But Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has become an exception, with bookies betting heavily on his chances of retaining power in the Assembly polls next month.
Akib Bhai, a top punter in Sadar Bazar in the Chhattisgarh capital, told IANS, that Narendra Modi, who is seeking to retain power for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the Assembly polls, has created a sensation in the betting market.
"During just the past one week, the market has collected Rs 510 million (51 crore) from over 33,000 bookies through 18,000 centres on whether Modi will be able to install the saffron government again."
Akib, along with Raja and Asim, are known as the big bulls or satta kings of central and western India.
Raipur has emerged as a favourite ground for bookies, guided and controlled by Middle East-based big bulls. They run the betting market through a chain of collection centres in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra's Vidarbha region, Gujarat and Chhattisgarh.
"Punters of central and western India have never made good business on political stuff. Even in Assembly and Parliamentary polls, the amounts staked by bookies were always well below total collections made on a One-Day International cricket match played between India and Pakistan. But Modi seems to be upsetting the trend," Raja told IANS.
The two-phased elections for the 182-member assembly in Gujarat will be held Dec 11 and Dec 16.
"Due to Modi's alleged role in the post-Godhra carnage on minorities in Gujarat, people living in India or abroad are strongly debating the fate of Modi. That's why the betting market has collected Rs 510 million on his fate in just one week," said Raja.
"The total stake on whether Modi will retain power or not is expected to cross Rs 3.8 billion (380 crore) by December 11 when Gujarat goes to the polls in the first phase," Raja asserted.
According to betting market sources, the big bulls are promising punters that their money will be doubled if Modi manages to win 100-120 seats. If he manages a two-thirds majority, the returns will be four times the bet.
If the BJP gets a simple majority (between 91-100), the punters will get back 20 per cent more than what they bet on Modi.
However, if he is restricted to 60-80 seats, the punters would get only 60 per cent of the bet back.
"Out of over 33,000 bookies who had staked their amount till Tuesday morning, 72 per cent brought in money predicting the BJP's final figure will be between 100-120," said a source.
"The big bulls have been collecting money on the Gujarat polls with a strong hope to compensate the unpredicted loss in September's Twenty20 cricket event," he added.
The big bulls had been licking their wounds till November 20 (when dates for the Gujarat elections were announced), as they suffered staggering loses of over Rs 910 million (91 crore) in September this year when India created history by defeating arch-rivals Pakistan in South Africa in the Twenty20 world championships.
The big bulls paid six times the bets placed by nearly 72,000 punters.
"The September loss was the worst ever. Everything went against our predictions," said Akib.
"We encouraged smaller bookies in central and western India to invest money on the out-of-form India and Pakistan but both the teams made it to the finals. It created mayhem in the betting market, something we have never seen in the past one decade," he added.
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