Betting buffs waiting with bated breath

With the Parliamentary poll results barely a few hours away, Bangalore’s betting buffs are awaiting the declaration with bated breaths. For, they have invested huge sums of money, particularly on the Congress party, in the satta market.

Governed by the Mumbai satta market where the betting amount is learnt to be somewhere around Rs 10,000 crore, Bangalore is sitting on an investment of Rs 500 crores, sources said. Interestingly, a big chunk of the betting amount is going in favour of the Congress.

“It is difficult to say how much amount has been invested in favour of the Congress, but it is in the leading position in the satta market with large share of the total investment going in favour of the Congress party,” said a source from Bangalore.

Sources said that the analysis is not only based on the personal assumption but also on the prediction made by many media houses. If sources are to be believed, bet per unit on the Congress and its allies is Rs 5 whereas the betting amount on the NDA is Rs 7 per unit. The betting amount per unit on the Congress is less since the probability of the UPA forming the government is too high whereas the per unit rate for NDA and its allies is higher as the chances of NDA forming government are perceived to be dim.

Effect on bourses

Kumar V Jahgirdar, a member of  National Stock Exchange of India (NSE), said that the stock market will witness a rally upwards at least by 10 pc next week, if the Congress manages to come near the half-way mark with support of its allies. The market might zoom by five per cent, even if the NDA gets 200 seats and the AIADMK and Telugu Desam and the old allies of the NDA join hands and garner majority in the Lok Sabha. 
But Jahgirdar had another warning: The stocks could just crash, like they did in 2004, if the Third Front or a ‘khichari’ government comes to power.