If the victory of Prasant Tamang set the Darjeeling hills afire, Saturday’s scintillating win of Aneek Dhar of Bengal at the finals of Sa-Re-Ga-Ma-Pa in a cliff-hanger, set the stage for an early celebration of Durga Puja festival.

A dark horse since the beginning of Zee Tv’s popular musical talent hunt that started nearly six months ago, Aneek,19, rallied splendidly in the last couple of weeks to pip Raja Hindustani of Rajasthan by barely 2 lakh votes, results declared in the glittering finals at the Andheri Sports Complex in Mumbai on Saturday. Amanat Ali of Pakistan, another talented singer, bagged the second runner up spot.

Hundreds of people across the city and other parts of Bengal burst into impromptu  celebration late in the night the moment Bollywood idol Akshay Kumar declared Aneek as the winner of India’s first  international music talent hunt.

Crackers were burst and drums beats rent the air as the local vernacular channels started beaming flashes of his victory much before the deferred live telecast of the show could announce the final results.

Processions with Aneek’s cut out were taken out in various localities of the city on Sunday, particularly in Lake Gardens area of South Kolkata from where the youngest singer of the Zee TV reality show hails. Some  played songs sung by him in the competition that registered a record 30.65 million votes across India and abroad.

“Victory has bestowed on me greater responsibility as I have to prove to the industry my worth as a singer,” Aneek told the Deccan Herald over telephone from Mumbai. I am humbled by the honour and I’ve to labour hard in future to retain people’s faith and love in me, he added.