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| Lucknow local stands a few votes from stardom - By Amita Verma Lucknow, Feb. 14: There are no elections round the corner but posters saying "Vote for Vinit" are up all over the Uttar Pradesh capital. The scroll on cable networks now has no room for advertisements — it is "Vote for Vinit" all the way. Meetings are being organised in local degree colleges to muster support for him. Government employees, shopkeepers and teachers can be seen furiously working on their cellphones to the best-known destination — 7575. Even the Valentine messages this year have come with a tag line: "Vote for Vinit". Lucknow suddenly seems to have woken up to its newest talent — 17-year-old Vinit Singh — who is just a whisker away from the winning post in Zee TV's reality show Sa Re Ga Ma Pa. Vinit, a Class 12 student from Lucknow's Rajajipuram locality, is one of the two finalists in the Zee TV show. Hailing from a modest background, this young boy is pitted against Debojit from Assam, who is allegedly being supported by Ulfa. "We have heard that Ulfa has asked people in the Northeast to support Debojit and suddenly there were 30 lakh votes in his favour. We do not know the truth but we do know that despite being a versatile singer, Vinit needs votes to emerge a winner. Earlier, we thought that he would reach the winning post on the strength of his talent alone, but it is the votes that also apparently matter. Hence we are going all out to seek votes for him," says Aarushi Khanna, an intermediate student who lives in Vinit's neighbourhood. Aarushi and her friends are spending four hours every day in a shopping mall, requesting every visitor to vote for Vinit. "This is the least we can do for him. If he wins, he will do all of us proud," she adds. Suresh Srivastava, the local BJP MLA who has sponsored the posters for Vinit, says: "It is our duty to support Vinit, who is now among the two finalists in the singing contest. Look how the other contestant, Debojit from Assam, has surged ahead with votes from the Northeast. If every Lucknow resident sends a vote for Vinit, this young boy can emerge a clear winner because at present he is lagging behind by only a few thousand votes." Rajiv Dikshit, a cable network operator, has been running appeals for Vinit without charging a single penny. "Hum jitna uske liye kar sakte hain, karenge," he says. Students of at least 13 schools in the state capital have been taking out processions over the past two days, soliciting support for the talented singer. Carrying placards that say, "Vote for Vinit' and "SMS for Vinit", the schoolchildren are going around shopping centres and residential colonies to campaign for their favourite singer. The principal of a prominent school told this newspaper on Tuesday: "My students came to me collectively and said that they wanted to campaign for Vinit. Seeing the sincerity of purpose I have agreed to shorten the classes for this week so that they can take time off to campaign for him." Vinit, incidentally, was in Lucknow on Monday to canvass support for himself. His brother Vinay — who runs an orchestra — says: "We are overwhelmed with the kind of response that Vinit is getting from Lucknow. The support that Debojit got from the Northeast seemed to have evoked a strong reaction here. We are now waiting for February 24 when the finals will be held, but whatever the outcome, we shall be eternally grateful to Lucknow for its support it has given to its son." |
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