It was his love for the great Kishore that brought Amit Paul to Sony’s K for Kishore. However, the Indian Idol 3 finalist incurred the wrath of other challengers after he was selected for the next round, without even having performed.

Amit fell severely ill and thus couldn’t make it to the show but he was still chosen among the final six for the challenger’s round. (These six now join the other six original finalists) Expectedly, this raised few eye brows among the other challengers. Some of the aggrieved and eliminated challengers included the likes of Abbhijit Ghoshaal (Sa Re.. fame) and Jimmy Felix (Aasma). His selection is all the more dubious as Amit, though having performed as a celebrity guest on the show earlier, never actually performed as a participant.

Among the judges, Amit Kumar was in sync with the agitators and was of the view that Amit Paul didn’t deserve to be selected. However, Bappi Lahiri disagreed with his co-judge saying that Amit Paul had already proved his mettle as a singer and it will be a loss to not have him in the show. Sudesh Bhonsale found merit in both his co-judges views and after a healthy discussion, the trio agreed to have Amit in the show.

An ousted contestant, who didn’t wish to be named, says, “I have been part of such reality shows and these decisions don’t surprise me. So, there’s no question of taking a moral stand to it. After all, those who ring in higher TRPs don’t get eliminated.”

Commenting on this issue, Sheetal Iyer, the executive producer of show says, “There was resentment to Amit’s participation. However, he had had earlier performed as a celebrity guest and also sang in our press conference in Indore. The judges had seen both these performances.

But isn’t this unfair to other challengers who got eliminated? Sheetal chides, “There was no elimination per se for the challenger’s round. The final six were solely chosen by the judges. There was never any public voting. So, one has to respect the judges’ choice.”

A reluctuant Bappi Lahiri had this to say, “He had performed well earlier and he expressed his desire to be part of this show. We were very pleased with his singing. Unfortunately, he was ill so he couldn’t perform that day.”

Amit Paul and the other judges remained unavailable for comment.