Jammed lines caused my ouster
Cries Indian Idol contestant Ravi Tripathi (Courtesy: Mumbai Mirror)Kunal M Shah
Indian idol contestant Ravi Tripathi who was eliminated this week, blames the telephone lines of BSNL for his ouster from the show. Tripathy gave his best performance this week yet, to his surprise, he fell short by a few thousand votes.
€œI feared for the worst when my friends called me from various places in UP like Pratapgadh, Benaras, Gorakhpur and Azamgadh, saying that their messages were not reaching my number (2525),€ says Tripathi. €œApparently the phone lines were jammed and to my misfortune it happened on the night when the results were to be declared.€
€œIt was destiny,€ he adds. €œAnu Malik told me that he was unhappy about my getting eliminated. Sonu Nigam consoled me by saying that it's better to sing well and get eliminated than to sing badly and stay on.€
When asked if he suspected foul play, he replied, €œI don't know. I just know that it feels terrible to be eliminated due to technical problems. Right now I am staying with Suresh Wadkar, in whose music school I have been teaching the students since the last eight years.€
When contacted Anupama Mandloi, Vice President programming, Sony Television said, €œI don't know whether this is true or false and I have no information. We do not keep track of where BSNL has failed or not failed. Besides, whenever a contestant is voted out, they find a hundred ways to blame others. It's actually quite simple €" people either vote for you or they don't. The votes may not have come from UP, but what happened to the rest of India? This is Indian Idol, not UP Idol.€