Hyderabadi's campaign for KARUNYA

With the next elimination round of Indian Idol 2 coming up on Tuesday, April 04, finalist N.C. Karunya's Hyderabadi supporters are in full battle mode and are doing their part to ensure that the local boy gets the needed votes in the critical round to make it to the top two. Dr Prakash of Bhaskara Hospitals has dropped everything, even postponing a few appointments with patients, to put up posters around the city and at railway sta tions urging people to vote for Karunya. "I see it as my duty to help him. He deserves it and we should support him," says Dr Prakash, who has even engaged the sarpanch of Meerpet, to distribute pamphlets and posters. "I'm doing a small thing, but I hope when people hear him, they will want to vote." Like Dr Prakash, Seetha Kiran, the principal of Safilguda DAV school and regional director for the DAV schools, has been campaigning extensively for her former pupil. "He is one of our old students and we take great pride in his achievement," says Kiran who has put up posters and visited other DAV schools around the region, asking staff and students to vote for him. "Even as a child in school, I would ask him to render a keertana every Tuesday at assembly. His singing would touch our hearts and keep us going for the whole day," she recalls. She says she has promised to give students laddoos if they vote.

Even those who have never met Karunya have been inspired to do their part to make him the next Indian Idol. Natco Pharmaceuticals chairman's wife Durgadevi became a fan after seeing him per form on the show for the first time. She and other support ers have prepared leaflets, handouts and banners which they've put up at various colleges, IT com panies and even govern ment offices. Asked why she has taken up Karunya's cause, and she says, "He is a Hyderabadi and a really good singer. He should be the next Idol. Unless and until people vote for him, this cannot happen." Even a local politician's wife in Adilabad, S. Revathi Venugopal has launched her own Karunya campaign, telling party members to vote for the singer.

Interestingly, Karunya has even inspired a fan website on www.orkut.com, which has 92 members from around the country and as far as Pakistan exchanging notes, ite and news about the boy they hope will be the next Idol.

Asked how he feels about all this spontaneous support, Karunya says he is glad people have "woken up" and started campaigning for him. "The other contestants have strong support from their regions. I want my region too to do the same for me because I'm their own boy." Saying he felt "insecure" because of the hype generated by his previous performances, he says, "The hype does worry me. It is usually the underdogs who get the votes, and I don't want people to stop voting for me thinking that I am a strong contender." If Karunya makes it to the next round, he will return to Hyderabad for his "Homecoming Show" on April 5-6 and his supporters are so confident of his chances, that they are making preparations for his arrival. "I haven't been back to Hyderabad for five months and I am really looking forward to it. I just want to fill myself up with Hyderabadi air and ambience," says a homesick Karunya.

His father, N.C. Madhu is sure that his son will win the hearts of viewers in the South and the North alike.