Prashant Tamang

After entering the Indian Idol contest, Tamang became a celebrity in West Bengal, Sikkim and particularly in the Darjeeling hills. People from Kolkata, Sikkim and Gorkha population living all around the world voted overwhelmingly for Tamang in the contest.[11] The mayor of Mirik vowed to spend Rs. 10,000 and his staff vowed to spend a month's salary in SMS voting for Prashant Tamang.[12] People of Nepalese origin working in Brunei, UK, Hong Kong, UAE and other countries sent money to vote for him in India.[13]

Travel was organised in Howrah, Kolkata in his support, some of which were attended by his sister, mother, and grandmother. In Pokhara, Nepal, Radio Annapurna (93.4 MHz) campaigned for collecting donation and the collected sum of NRs. Seventy-thousand donations were sent to Darjeeling through its representative to vote for Tamang. A signature campaign for his support was organised by Himalaya Darpan (a Nepali newspaper) in Kolkata. Schools, clubs and other organisations asked people to support and vote for Tamang, who was named "पहाडको गौरव" (Pahad Ko Gaurav) meaning "Pride of the Hills".[14] Two cabinet ministers from Sikkim, G.M. Gurung and S.B. Subedi, planted tree saplings at Singtam to pledge the Sikkimese support for Tamang and to show the unity of the Nepalese community in Sikkim and Kolkata.[11] The Minister of Sports & Youth Affairs of Sikkim, P.S. Golay, also supported the statewide voting for Tamang.

Tamang, a constable in Kolkata Police, was supported by the officials of his department. Zulfiqar Hasan (Special ACP), visibly ecstatic with Tamang's triumph, in his interview after the announcement of the result, told that he was confident that Tamang would win and he and his team supported Tamang at every stage of the competition. According to reports, a couple of policemen even stayed awake through the nights to vote for Tamang.[15] Hasan said, "Given the hard worker he is, Tamang deserved this title. He has no formal training in music, but he has been chosen the new Indian Idol. This proves how dedicated he is towards whatever he does."

Bimal Gurung, a former councillor of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council, led a successful campaign for voting for Tamang in Indian Idol 3. His campaign gained huge support and popularity from the people of Darjeeling. Riding on the wave of this mass support, Bimal was able to move the campaign to a political angle and overthrow Subhash Ghisingh, the GNLF leader and caretaker of DGHC, from power. Bimal Gurung went on to found a new party called Gorkha Janmukti Morcha that renewed the demand for a state of Gorkhaland in India.[16]

A radio jockey Jonathan Brady (also known as Nitin) of Red FM, an FM radio channel in Delhi, commented in a live broadcast in his show that "shopkeepers will now have to make their own security arrangements as Gorkhas have taken to singing" when referring to Tamang, who is a Gorkhali, singing in the Indian Idol 3 contest.[17] This led to massive protests from Gorkhas all over and especially in Darjeeling district, where violent clashes erupted between supporters of Tamang and local residents of Siliguri.[18] The Gorkhas demanded that the RJ be taken off the FM channel. The Government of India issued a show-cause notice to Red FM for the racial slur.[19] Red FM issued a clarification stating that "We have not intentionally caused hurt to the sentiments of any person or any particular community, caste or creed. However in the event an inadvertent slight or offence has been caused to the sentiments of any person or community we tender our apology for the same".[20][21]