CM lends helping hand for Orissa dance group

Bhubaneswar, Aug 21

Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said on Friday that he had sent an SMS to vote in favour of a dance group from the state that has reached the final round of TV reality show "India's Got Talent", which will be telecast live on Saturday.

"I have already sent my SMS in favour of the group," Patnaik told reporters here.

Thousands of workers and leaders of Patnaik's Biju Janata Dal (BJD) have also sent similar SMSes, a BJD leader told IANS.

Prince Dance group from Berhampur town, nearly 180 km from here, has been selected out of 45,000 competitors to perform in the grand finale round of the show to be telecast live on Colors channel on Saturday.

The team that comprises 26 artistes will compete with 10 other groups for the prize. Mostly below 22, none of the team members are professional dancers. Their 26-year-old dance teacher Reddy said he also never had any formal training.

They had earlier danced to the tune of "Sare Jahan Se Acha" and the audience and the judges -- Shekhar Kapur, Kirron Kher and Sonali Bendre -- were spellbound.

"We are practising for more than eight hours every day. We hope people of our state will send SMS votes for us in large numbers," Reddy told IANS over phone from Mumbai.

Relatives, friends, corporate houses, social activists and sand artist Sudarsan Pattnaik were among those to have launched campaigns in the past few days and appealed to people to vote for the group.

(IANS)