CHANDIGARH: The satta market (bookies) is predicting a hung Punjab assembly as they are giving a slight edge to the Congress in the forthcoming elections on February 4, followed by AAP and the ruling SAD-BJP alliance.
Sources in the satta market estimate that there is a tight contest between Congress and AAP and it can be anybody’s game. But they give a slight advantage to the Congress and they predict that the party will get around 55 seats, followed by AAP with around 50 and then the ruling alliance SAD-BJP with 12 out of the total 112 seats.
Out of theses 12, they give seven to the SAD(Shiromani Akali Dal) and remaining five to the BJP.
If any party has to form the government in the state they have to get the simple majority of 59 seats. The odds are 80 to 100 for Congress and 70 to 100 for AAP and not in the reckoning 10 to 100 for SAD-BJP alliance.
The bookies predict that the Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal will win from Lambi, while his son and the state's Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal will be losing to Bhagwant Mann of AAP from Jalalabad.
Also Adesh Partap Singh Kairon, son-in-law of Badal is losing from Tarantarn. Also, they predict that Captain Amarinder Singh will win from Patiala (Urban).
They predict that Revenue Minister and the bother-in-law of Sukhbir Badal, Bikram Singh Majithia might just make it from Majitha. They predict magha and doaba belt with Congress, while AAP will get seats in Malwa.
Sources that earlier the bookies are giving a slight edge to the new entrant in the state politics AAP as last week the odds were in their favour with 57 seats, followed by Congress with 55 seats and ruling SAD-BJP alliance was just given five seats only. But in last few days the AAP has gone down and Congress and SAD-BJP have improved.
In 2012, the bookies had predicted the victory for the Congress in Punjab but they were proved wrong as SAD-BJP alliance won. But they were right in the 2014 Haryana Assembly elections as they predicted 45 seats for the BJP and the party bagged 47.
A bookie on condition of anonymity said that already bets worth more than Rs 500 crore has been placed in these elections in the satta market, due to demonetization this time the bets are less as there is hardly any money in the market.