Kurseong, Sept. 10: Fans of Indian Idol contestant Prashant Tamang demonstrated in front of the BSNL office here today alleging that their votes for the singer cast through landline phones did not reach the Sony Entertainment Television server on Friday night.
Tamang, who hails from Darjeeling, has made it to the Top Two in the music reality show telecast on Sony.
Buoyed by the singer’s success, his fans had spent Rs 75,000 to obtain 15 temporary landphone connections to vote for him.
After dialling the Sony server number 19024242525 throughout Friday night, the fans felt that their efforts had not paid off.
“We received a confirmation in the form of ‘Thank you’ from Sony after each vote was cast. But when we cross-checked with the telephone exchange, we found that only 85 calls were registered from 10 phones and 71 calls from the other five. But we had called at least 75,000 times,” said Kundan Yolmo, a fan.
Dinesh Sherpa, another fan, blamed it on the “carelessness of the BSNL”.
Uttam Das, a subdivisional engineer of the BSNL, came to pacify the agitators, but did not succeed.
The divisional manager of Darjeeling district (hills), K.N. Karki, arrived at the spot to control the situation. He said: “The votes have reached the destination. The meter is not showing the actual reading because of a technical failure. An expert will be brought to Kurseong to rectify the fault.”
Tamang, who hails from Darjeeling, has made it to the Top Two in the music reality show telecast on Sony.
Buoyed by the singer’s success, his fans had spent Rs 75,000 to obtain 15 temporary landphone connections to vote for him.
After dialling the Sony server number 19024242525 throughout Friday night, the fans felt that their efforts had not paid off.
“We received a confirmation in the form of ‘Thank you’ from Sony after each vote was cast. But when we cross-checked with the telephone exchange, we found that only 85 calls were registered from 10 phones and 71 calls from the other five. But we had called at least 75,000 times,” said Kundan Yolmo, a fan.
Dinesh Sherpa, another fan, blamed it on the “carelessness of the BSNL”.
Uttam Das, a subdivisional engineer of the BSNL, came to pacify the agitators, but did not succeed.
The divisional manager of Darjeeling district (hills), K.N. Karki, arrived at the spot to control the situation. He said: “The votes have reached the destination. The meter is not showing the actual reading because of a technical failure. An expert will be brought to Kurseong to rectify the fault.”
