Punters prefer local candidates

Hyderabad: Bookies expected huge bets to be placed on film star turned politician Pawan Kalyan winning from Bhimavaram constituency, which has been dominated by the Kapu community since the 2009 elections, but punters don’t seem to be keen.

Punters are not showing interest in betting on top leaders; they prefer to bet on local candidates and are prepared to put big amounts at stake.

For example, one bookie said punters are prepared to bet in 1:4 ratio on the winning chances of Jana Sena candidate Bommidi Nayaka from Narsapur constituency.

Betting is high on the Narasapur Lok Sabha seat, which has three candidates from the Kshatriya community — Raghu Ramakrishna Raju (YSRC), K. Bapiraju (Congress), Vetukuri Venkata Siva Rama Raju alias Kalavappudi Siva (TD) and the Jana Sena chief's brother and film actor K. Nagababu.

The 1996 parliamentary elections from Narsapur saw a triangular contest between Suchitra Krishnam Raju of the NTR Telugu Desam, Kanumuri Bapiraju of the Congress and Kothapalli Subbarayudu of the Telugu Desam. The Telugu Desam candidate won against two Kshatriya candidates.

Keeping in view past experiences, punters are so keen on this seat that they are preparing to bet large sums.

Many have put their money on the YSR Congress and Jana Sena candidates in the ratios of 1:5, 1:3 and some of them 1:2, bookies say.   

According to the bookies, punters are betting on Telugu Desam candidates winning in assembly segments of Mangalgiri (N Lokesh), Undi, Bhimavaram, Visakhapatnam (North), Guntur, Kadapa, Rajahmundry, Bheemli, Eluru, Hindupur and also the Vijayawada, Guntur, Visakhapatnam, and Rajahmundry Lok Sabha seats.

They explained that P Srinivasa Rao alias Vasu Babu is contesting from Ungutur segment in West Godavari on a YSRCP ticket, and punters are betting on the candidate securing more than 10,000 votes in the ratio of 1:1.5 ratio, which means the winner will get Rs 1.5 lakh if he bets for Rs 1 lakh.