Betting begins on the threshold of counting

Shivarathri night gets a political twist as candidates lose sleep

With just a day left for the counting of the municipal elections, betting is very much in the air.

Betting is especially predominant in wards three and 10 in the City. There is close contest between Prasad Babu of the Congress and Balaji, an Independent, in ward 10, and between B M Mubarak of the JD(S) and M Venkatesh, an Independent, in ward 3.

The competition has fuelled the betting activities in the wards, say residents of the wards.

Add a few zeroes

Betting is all going on, however, in lakhs of rupees now- thousands of rupees is long past, since the municipal elections are already over, say political reviewers.

Concurring, the bookies confidently say, “Betting with merely thousands of rupees is too low a deal. If we bet now, and the candidate wins, we will obviously win lakhs of rupees. Things can go the other way too, naturally.”

Whether to bet

Gamblers have been even found to call up their favoured candidates over the telephone, asking them whether they could bet in their names.

The frequent calls by their ‘fans’, ironically, has been more of an irritation for the candidates who are already waiting with baited breath for the outcome of the elections. “Please do as you wish, just let us be,” has been the response of some candidates to such gamblers.

Festive predecessor

The night before counting being Mahashivarathri, people are expecting a ‘real’ sense of Shivarathri on Sunday night. Both candidates and the gambling supporters are expected to stay awake in tension the night through.

Many candidates are jokingly said to have lost all sleep on Thursday night itself, immediately after polling. Some were not found anywhere Friday.

By the time they stepped out of their houses on Saturday, however, the betting situation had reached sky high, with all chances of only getting more intense.