This year’s Howly Raas festival in the Barpeta region of Assam is unlike previous ones. There are lengthy queues at the ticket counter as people wait to buy lottery tickets, each for Rs 100, and promising high-end luxury cars to the lucky winners.

Every year, the organizing committee of the Howly Raas festival holds a lottery tournament called ‘Upahar Coupon Khel’ during the Raas Mahotsav and this year is the 95th iteration of the popular annual event at Howly.

The Raas Mahotsav organizing committee claims that this year’s lottery competition has an incredible prize pool as 21 luxury vehicles will be awarded to the lucky winners. Numerous people from all across the state have lined up outside the counter to purchase tickets due to the allure of the eye-catching prizes.

“We have released 3.20 lakh tickets for this year’s lottery competition and will give away 21 luxury vehicles as prizes. The first prize is an AUDI A4 while the second is an MG Hector. We will conduct the lottery competition on November 21,” said Phanindra Nath, secretary of the event’s organizing committee.

The ‘Upahar Coupon Khel’ was introduced in the year 2000 and the list of gifts included a Maruti 800 car, bikes and other household items but due to the overwhelming response from the community they started adding one or more cars of different brands from 2005 onwards.

The Upahar Coupon Khel has been successful due to the transparency in maintaining the account and conducting the draw in an open arena under the supervision of judges and the general public.

The locals have said that lots of visitors from different parts of Assam also come to Howly Raas festival only to buy Upahar Coupon tickets and try their luck in the lottery.