Mumbai Betting Goes On
Published November 30, 2008
An estimated 10-15 million rupees placed on outcome of Dec. 4 Rajasthan state elections.
Last week's coordinated terrorist attacks in the Indian financial capital Mumbai have had no effect on betting rates in India, the Indo-Asian News Service has reported.
With parliamentary elections coming up on December 4 in the northwestern state of Rajasthan, punters are still putting down plenty of money on the outcome.
An estimated 10-15 million rupees ($200-300 thousand) were bet so far on who will win seats in the state assembly.
Political bets
Rajasthan is currently ruled by the Bharatiya anata Party (BJP), which has 121 seats from a total of 200. The main opposition party, Congress, holds 53 seats.
But punters have been tempted by the fact that the opposition is in with a big chance this time around. According to a bookmaker in the state capital Jaipur, there has been no interest in the possibility of the BJP again winning a majority of more than 100 seats.
Terror
The Mumbai attacks, carried out by a previously unknown organization calling itself the Deccan Mujahideen, claimed at least 174 lives and wounded 239, after gunmen attacked ten locations India's largest city on November 26. Indian security forces finally gained control of all the sites on November 29 after running battles in an attempt to rescue hostages.
