A series of arduous rounds and strenuous tests kept Lead India contestants on their toes, eliminating non-deserving candidates one by one until RK Misra was discovered. We hope he evolves to be a ‘real’ leader and not just another politician.

RK Misra turned out to be the best man on the Lead India stage at the grand finale held at Noida’s Film City on Saturday (Feb 9). The man from Bangalore, Misra was announced winner by the former president APJ Abdul Kalam.

The new leader was fortunate enough to bag all but one of the judges’ vote. The special judges panel at the mega final encompassed Right to Information (RTI) activist and Magsaysay award winner Arvind Kejriwal, India’s solicitor general Goolam Vahanvati, senior Congress leader and former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Digvijay Singh and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad. The permanent jury members – Kiran Bedi, Javed Akhtar and The Times of India (TOI) senior editor Vikas Singh – joined this special team.

The chief guests at the do consisted of Amar Singh, Arun Jaitley and Abhishek Manu Singhvi; they latched on a panel debate on ‘Why the new generation shows no interest in joining the politics.’ Singh also announced that his party would give a ticket to the finalists having ideal Samajwadi Party profiles. He stated that luck, opportunity and utility were the three components that made politicians.

Jaitley refused the idea of offering the candidates an easy ticket to enter politics; instead he focused on the power of ethics, morals and principles to excel in the long run. Singhvi seemed to share the same opinion. He asserted, “Let’s not make politics a charitable organisation. The competent candidates will be, no doubt, grabbed by us.”

Just before the winner was announced, the host Anupam Kher invited on stage the voted out six finalists – Soumya Mishra, Ujjwal Banerjee, Ranjit Gadgil, Dipayan Dey, Abha Singh and Sanjiv Kaura; they were given a big round of applause for their good performances.

Vineet Jain, managing director (MD), Times Group, stated, “The amazing response that we’ve got for Lead India is simply great. Lead India is an easily accessible platform for the Indian youth who wants to join politics.”

Out of the two strong finalists, Misra bagged India’s leader’s tile after beating Devang Nanavati in the last round. Misra showed his respect towards Nanavati’s excellent sense of arguing his case, and Nanavati termed Misra as a ‘doer’ and not a ‘talker’.

The grand finale demanded both the final candidates to make a case in one minute. While Nanavati articulated that good governance was not guaranteed by only joining active politics, Misra enlightened his public private partnership model. They also disclosed their dream projects; Nanavati has plans to establish a centre for leadership and social governance in Ahmedabad and Misra envisions of setting up a cattle farm in his village Sonari in Uttar Pradesh (UP).

After the judges’ votes, audience’s poll, short message service’s (SMS) count, Misra was declared the man of the hour. Kalam presented him with a certificate and a cheque for Rs 50 lakhs, and Misra reiterated Nanavati’s statement, “This is not the end of Lead India. The actual journey has just begun.”