President Abdul Kalam voted for 'Chitralekha Person of the Year-06'

Mumbai, Jan 7 (UNI) President APJ Abdul Kalam has been voted for ''Chitralekha Person of the Year -06'' title in a survey conducted by the leading bi-lingual magazine Chitralekha, which has a strong readership base in Maharashtra and neighbouring Gujarat.

Popularly known as APJ among his colleagues and fans, Dr Kalam received overwhelming support from readers in was voted by the readers in Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat, Rajkot and Mumbai. Amidst stiff challenge faced from other stalwarts, who had made mark in their respective fields year 2006, he as much as one third of the total votes of 32 per cent.

Other confestants included Indi-pop singer Himesh Reshamiya, the Ambani brothers, Union Railway Minister Lalu Prasad, soap queen Ekta Kapoor, cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram, Ratan Tata, Sharad Pawar and film maker Aditya Chopra.

Singer Himesh Reshamiya was second securing 19 per cent votes.

Anil Ambani, Chairman of Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) ranked third with 13 per cent votes, followed by the latest ''Management Guru'' Lalu Prasad, who managed 11 per cent votes.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni emerged as the ''Sports Person of the Year-2006'', an undisputed winner, securing 84 per cent votes.

The ''Film Person of the Year Award'' was claimed by Paresh Rawal with 32 per cent.

However, Aamir Khan surprisingly proved popular among the women of Gujarat, who had flooded him with 34 per cent votes.

''Business Person of the Year Award'' was bagged by Mukesh Ambani, Chairman of Reliance Industries and the ''Person of the Year (possible) -2007'' went to Rahul Gandhi, who beat his immediate rival Hrithik Roshan by claiming 31 per cent votes, whereas the latter got 28 per cent votes.

The category is instituted to get an idea as to who could potentially be most successful man in 2007.

The magazine, for the past two years, has been conducting its independent surveys through Hansa Research, India's leading market research agency, to elect Chitralekha Person of the Year.

Surveys are held among large cross section of people based in Gujarat and Mumbai. Last year, Chief Minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi had won the Chitralekha Person of the Year-2005 Award.

The survey, which also had a Short Messaging Service (SMS) provision, was conducted on economic and religious parameters, the release issued by Chitralekha said.

UNI