Hyderabad punters gallop to Andhra Pradesh, show little interest in Telangana elections

HYDERABAD: With elections in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh just five days away, punters from Hyderabad are betting big time in Andhra Pradesh, where Telugu Desam Party and YSR Congress are locked in a fierce battle with Pawan Kalyan’s Jana Sena playing the X factor.


According to information with the city police, betting organizers have already moved over to AP to assess the ground situation about the winning and losing chances of various candidates and the three prominent parties. After testing the waters in AP, punters are expected to commence high-stakes betting running into crores of rupees.

Sources in the Special Operation Team (SOT) of Cyberabad said the interest among bookies and punters in the Telangana general elections is low as the contest is expected to be dominated by the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS). In contrast, the interest among punters on the outcome in AP is extremely high.

Betting on AP victory margins

“We have information that important bookies have gone to AP to check for themselves and get first hand information about the possible outcomes. As per our surveillance, punters from Hyderabad who have gone to AP will begin the betting activity in the next couple of days,” an officer who deals with betting cases told STOI. City punters have gone to West and East Godavari, Guntur, Vijayawada and few other places.

Incidentally, punters from these place bet big on TRS in the Telangana assemby elections and pocketed crores.

Apart from who is going to form the next government, betting will also take place on individuals, like the winning chances and victory margin of Pawan Kalyan, AP cabinet minister Nara Lokesh, Hindupur MLA N Balakrishna and who will win the Visakhapatnam LS seat, which is witnessing a high-profile four-cornered contest. Bets are also being placed as to whether Jana Sena will play kingmaker.

According to officials, the punters will get active on April 10 and 11, and the betting is likely to go on until the results.

The nature of betting and the amounts will change between this, with various factors like exit polls and trends in other phases of polling across the country.

In Telangana, the important question is whether TRS will win 16 seats or not.

Rachakonda commissioner Mahesh Bhagwat said “As of now, there is no specific information about betting. But these things can be expected. Our teams are on the field 24x7 during polls," he told.