Instead of politicians dancing to popular tunes it was people who were dancing to politicians' tunes last Friday when leaders from different parties participated in a Special Antakshari show organised by Zee TV.

Zee marked the completion of 400 Antakshari episodes by organising 14 charity fund-raising programmes in aid of victims of the recent Gujarat earthquake. The exotic sets in Essel World's Water Kingdom situated near the western Mumbai suburb of Borivli was all glitter what with political heavyweights like Chhagan Bhujbal, deputy chief minister of Maharashtra, making their presence felt. Bhujbal did quite a star turn on the drums and struck up a lively beat. He started with the patriotic Mere desh ki Dharti and later Sare jahaan se achcha Hindustan hamara where he was accompanied by Renuka Chaudhary of Congress for Parwane. The Diwane team comprised of Gulab Nabi Azad and his wife Shamim. Azad sang the original Kashmiri version of Bumbro Bumbro from Mission Kashmir. The Mastane team comprised of Kirit Somaiya of BJP and Girija Vyas of Congress. Antakshari's former hostesses Renuka Shahane and Durga Jasraj along with Rajeshwari provided singing support to the participants while Anu Kapoor anchored the show.

Team Deewane: Congressman Ghulam Nabi Azad with wife Shameem Azhar; Team Parwane: Bhujbal and Renuka Chaudhary of the Congress; Team Mastane: Kirit Somaiya and Girija Vyas of the BJP. Standing is Antakshari host Anu Kapoor. From left: Durga Jasraj, Renuka Shahane (both former co-hosts) and Rajeshwari (present co-host) are also seen.
Bhujbal and Chaudhary on the Diwane won the contest and a cheque of Rs 100,000 which they promptly returned to the organisers. Kalraj Mishra, chief of the Utter Pradesh BJP unit, presented the cheque to Maya Dave, one of those left homeless by the Gujarat earthquake.

The politicians enjoyed their new role, while the audience also enjoyed every bit of it, especially the singing efforts of Kirit Somaiya. "I enjoyed it thoroughly," Renuka Chaudhary, who had flown down from Delhi specifically for the programme, said.

Ashok Goyal, who heads the Essel group, announced that RS 1 million from the earnings of Antakshari would go to the Zee TV earthquake relief fund. While elaborating on the relief work carried out by Zee TV, he said the estimated cost of relief work for the village adopted by Zee TV was in the region of RS 80-100 million.

Among the celebrities who graced the occasion was music maestro OP Nayyar.