Mumbai: The unofficial satta bazar is betting on Shiv Sena (SS) - Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) alliance to perform well in the upcoming Assembly elections in the state.
Maharashtra and Haryana are going to the polls at the same time. As per estimates, the bids in the betting market would likely cross Rs 25,000-30,000 crore for both the states.
Generally, betting opens immediately after the poll dates are announced but this time the satta market took some time. The poll dates were announced on September 21 but the betting rates were opened only on October 9.
According to the bookies, initially, there were no clarity about the SS-BJP alliance and both the parties were looking for more seats. In 2014, both the parties chose to contest separately.
The rates which opened recently were clearly favoring the ruling alliance. Satta bazar has favoured BJP to emerge as the single largest party, followed by the alliance partner SS.
The illegal betting market has predicted the BJP-SS alliance to get 200 to 215 seats out of 288 while the Congress-NCP would be restricted to 55-60 seats.
Many prominent leaders from Congress and NCP have switched to the BJP-SS alliance, that will affect the performance of Cong-NCP as well and the NCP’s loss would be even bigger.
According to a bookie, “The ruling alliance has not performed well in the last five years. There is a slowdown in almost all sectors which has hit the business community hard.
The Aarey tree cutting issue and the recent bank scams have added fuel to the fire but the lack of political options and the condition of the opposing parties will work in the favour of the ruling parties.”
“The bookies have favored BJP to perform well is due to the sentiment post revocation of Article 370," said senior crime journalist Vivek Agrawal. "The Congress is facing internal issues, many of their senior leaders have rebelled and joined BJP which would help the party to retain power in Maharashtra," he added.
