Hyderabad: Bookies have been active in the betting hotbed of West Godavari, accepting bets on the winning chances of major political parties in Andhra Pradesh and also on the majority margin.
Bookies are expecting that bets worth Rs 2,000 crore will be placed in this election; in the recent Assembly elections in Telangana state, punters bet about Rs 1,500 crore on the winning chances of the Telangana Rashtra Samiti and Congress.
Huge amounts are on the table for majority margin secured by hot favourites such as Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, YSR Congress president Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy and his son N. Lokesh, and Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan.
According to DeccanChronicle sources close to the bookies, a majority of punters are placing bets on the YSR Congress winning, and bookies are accepting betting on 1:1 ratio (eg if the punter bets Rs 1 lakh on YSR Congress winning, he would get another one lakh if it wins).