Manali: In a beauty pageant mired by controversy over the selection process of finalists, a theatre artist from Kullu, Yukti Pandey was crowned the Winter Queen 2018 here on Saturday night. Out of the 30 girls chosen for the pageant, which was part of the five-day-long Winter Carnival, 10 made it to the final round.
It was Yukti's second attempt at winning the crown. "I had participated in the contest last year also, but lost. My father had cried that day, which made me take this up as a challenge. I worked hard this year and won the contest. My father is much happier than I am. I own my success to my father, who has supported me all the time," she said.
Daughter of Jagat Prasad and Maya, Yukti is graduate in arts and has been doing theatre for many years now. "I want to make a career in modeling. This contest has boosted my morale. The contest was difficult but I was determined to come first at any cost," she added.
Elix Chaudhary from Mandi was the first runners-up, while Shivani Rathor from Shimla was the second runners-up.
However, about a dozen contestants who did not make it to the final round alleged that the contest was fixed and the results already decided. Ravina, one of the contestants who failed to make it to the final round, claimed the judges were interfering. "What were they (judges in the pageant) doing in the grooming room all the day? The question and answer round was also fixed. The tag numbers of contestants were written on the question sheets," she said. Another contestant Avantika Bekta alleged that a "person was openly offering" the contestants a place in the finals.
Girisha, another non-finalist, alleged that the 20 girls who were in the semifinal round and not chosen for the final had to spend from their own pocket for sarees, ornaments and other things. "Suddenly in the evening, when we were all set to go for the final round, we were told 'you are out'. Why we were forced to do the extra expense?" said Manisha Bhandari, another semi-finalist. "Girls come here with so many hopes. But we feel duped by such bad handling of affairs," she added.
Another allegation behind the pageant being fixed was that out of the 30 girls selected for participation, 29 were from Himachal and only one was from Chandigarh.
However, the pageant organizers have trashed the allegations. Winter Carnival Committee vice-chairman H R Bairwa said, "Transparency has been ensured to ensure that the right candidate emerges as the winner. Judges gave marks after taking care of different aspects. All allegations levelled against us are baseless."
