Bookies send mixed messages about Modi becoming PM

The final weeks of the election have been quite a bumpy ride for PM aspirant Narendra Modi and his party, the BJP. Going by what bookies are saying, its repercussions are being felt in the betting market where the odds rise and fall with the every twist and turn leaders and their parties encounter in the race to the finishing line. Even though betting is illegal in India, given the hype that this election has seen, bookies have bet heavily on Modi. He has emerged as the clear favourite to become the Prime Minister come 16 May, but recently his odds have lengthened in some betting circles. According to a Delhi-based bookie, the buzz in betting circles of Karnal and Allahabad was that Modi’s chances of becoming PM were diminishing. “Modi is slipping. It is going to be difficult for him to become PM. His reputation had more value before but it has become less after elections began,” said the bookie. [caption id=“attachment_1518485” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Narendra Modi on the way to the BJP office in Varanasi. AP[/caption] AamAdmi Party’s aggressive campaign in Varanasi, he says, seems is spooking the bookie market in Uttar Pradesh. “In Varanasi, the buzz around Kejriwal is more compared to that around Modi. AAP_walahs_ have managed to get into every household. This is what even some BJP workers who have returned from Varanasi are saying,” says the Delhi bookie. But not all betting circles are cooling off on Modi and the prospect of BJP forming the next government. The bookies in Modi’s home state remain very bullish about his chances of becoming PM. According to a bookie in Rajkot, a betting hub, the highly charged contest in Varanasi has seen only a small dip in Modi’s betting value. The buzz in the Rajkot betting circles, according to the bookie, is that BJP will get 250 seats. In Haryana too, bookies are betting big on Modi and the BJP though the number of seats projected have slightly fallen in the final phases. Between the 7th and 8th phases of polling (30 April and 7 May), the seat projection for BJP fell from 250 to 243, according to a bookie in Hissar. He attributed the fall to the pre-dominance of caste-based constituencies in that phase. It has however picked up again, rising to 246 after 7 May, the bookie said. But it has picked up again rising to 246, after 7 May.