Jagan Mohan Redddy Party may have won the Kovur by-election, but his fans and followers seem to have lost good money in this prestigious contest. Several YSR Congress Party leaders, activists and admirers and others have reportedly put hundreds of crores of money in betting, confident as they were over the landslide victory of Prasanna Kumar Reddy.
Local reports say that at least Rs 500 crore was staked in this election on betting by people who include YSR Congress Party leaders to common farmers in villages who staked their family lands on the bets.
However, while Prasanna won the seat comfortably, his less-than-expected majority has undone those who put their money on 30,000 and above majority. Some even went up to a majority of 40,000 in their bets.
With Prasanna securing 23,496 votes as majority, less than the expectations of punters, many of them lost heavily. A TDP leader claimed that their party men in coastal districts made a cool Rs 400 crore, as reward for their betting. “We may have lost in Kovur. But our party men were benefited financially,” a TDP leader said in Assembly lobbies.
Indukuripet mandal seems to have undone the calculations of YSR Congress leaders, where the TDP candidate managed to secure 2006 votes majority, cutting that much into Prasanna’s overall lead.
A farmer from Cherlopalli village in Nellore reportedly staked all his 30 acres of ancestral land on the majority of above 30,000 and he lost it all now!
