Shillong: With barely four days left before the Indian Idol 3 is finally "voted", prominent State legislators from both sides of the House have come together for a last ditch effort to appeal to the people of the State to vote vigorously for local lad Amit Paul.

Speaking to reporters here on Wednesday, Convenor of the newly formed Family and Well Wishers Committee AL Hek informed that the Committee has worked out new strategies and plans to garner votes in favour of Amit. He said that the Committee appeals to the State Government to make available at least 2,000 of the total 10,000 plus landlines belonging to the Government for public use.

Moreover, Mr Hek said that in Greater Shillong alone, there are 55,000 plus private landlines, and if 20,000 are used for sending about 500 votes each, then the votes may swell up to one crore mark. He called upon the people of the State to generously contribute 500 votes each from their landline in favour of Amit as the cost for these votes is only Rs 750.

However, Mr Hek informed that the State has more than three lakh CellOne subscribers, 70,000 Aircell subscribers, 50,000 Airtel subscribers and 75,000 Reliance subscribers, adding that if all these subscribers donated about 10 votes each, the total would come to a minimum of 10 to 20 lakh votes.

Vice Chairman, State Law Commission Mr AH Scott Lyngdoh said that as the countdown to the final is approaching, the people of the State need to garner more votes in favour of the State's brand ambassador.

"After reaching this far in the contest and if Amit fails to become the Indian Idol, it will be an embarrassing moment for the people of the State and we would also regret for not being able to give the required votes for his victory," AH Scott said.

Mawprem legislator, Manas Chaudhuri said that the deciding factor who will be the next Indian Idol are the votes coming from the rest of India and the votes of the supporters and fans of those contestants who are out of the contest.

While observing that there is no dearth of rich people in the State, Chaudhuri felt that if the poor could come forward to contribute, then the rich people should not hesitate to come forward to contribute to Amit's victory.

He said that this is also their best opportunity to contribute for the good cause of the State.

Further, Mr Chaudhuri said Government employees should also come forward to part one day of their salary so that it can be utilised for voting for Amit while informing that employees in Sikkim Government have reportedly done so in favour of Prashant.

Former Urban Affairs Minister Friday Lyngdoh observed that the people, the whole State and the region as well need to pump in more efforts to ensure that Amit wins the title. He also felt that performance should be the sole criterion for deciding the Indian Idol and not by the present system where it is primarily decided by voting.

Meanwhile, family members of Amit Paul have extended heartfelt gratitude to the staff of Shillong Municipal Board (SMB) for the monetary contributions, which has enabled the family to hire a number of PCOs.