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| Debojit Saha in Calcutta. Picture by Sanat Kumar Sinha |
Agartala, Feb. 22: Zee?s reality music show Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge 2005 has presented the Northeast with its very own youth icon. Silchar-based Debojit Saha, the only contestant from the Northeast, has become the most popular figure in the region. Emotions have been running high all over the Northeast and Tripura, too, seems to have been gripped by the so-called Debojit mania.
Everyone has been trying to ensure the singer?s victory in the grand finale on Friday. Large cut-outs of the singer dominate the Agartala skyline carrying messages like ?Vote for the son of the soil?.
Last night, Tripura chief minister Manik Sarkar called up Debojit to convey his best wishes for the D-Day. ?We are proud of you and you must make us prouder still.?
Debojit sought Sarkar?s blessings and promised to visit Tripura later.
A number of local vernacular dailies as well as Tripura?s lone news-based website tripurainfo.com have been appealing to readers and viewers to extend support to Debojit.
The authority of tripurainfo.com is creating a facility for free voting for Debojit through the internet. ?We owe this not only to Debojit as a person but also to our neighbouring state Assam as well as to the ?neglected northeastern region,? said Arindam Sarkar, marketing manager of the website. He also rued the treatment meted out to people from the Northeast.
?When I told someone in Lucknow last year that I am a resident of Agartala that man asked me if the city is in Bangladesh,? he said.
Senior journalist and author Jayanta Debnath, who is also the secretary of Debojit Fan Club, has appealed to the people of the state to ?vote with a vengeance? to ensure a victory for Debojit.
Debojit?s mentor Ismail Darbar, in a message, has appealed to the people of the Northeast to vote for the singer. He said the next two days would be crucial for deciding the winner, adds our staff reporter from Guwahati.