Banjara dance of Yadgir district bags first prize at State youth festival, qualifies for nationals

The Banjara dance of Yadgir district bagged first prize at the State-level youth festival and became eligible to contest in the national-level competition.

The Banjara dance performed by a team of girls and boys from Mudnal Tanda (Bhim Nagar) in Yadgir Taluk has bagged a first prize in the Janapada-style dance competition held during the second and final day of a two-day State-level youth festival organised in Yadgir on Thursday.

While Hassan and Udupi districts have bagged second and third prizes, respectively.

Yadgir district has got eligibility to contest at the national-level competitions since it bagged the first prize.

Kaveri, Menuka, Savita, Krishma, Vijayabau, Baby, Priyank, Roshani, Jagadish, and Savita have performed the Banjara-style dance under the guidance of manager Anand Rathod. 

The other teams (districts) that have bagged first, second, and third prizes in different categories of competition are as follows: Janapada Song (Mandya, Chikkamagalur, Bengaluru Urban), science exhibition (Ballari, Chikkamagaluru, and Kodagu ), poems (Uttara Kannada, Mandya, and Bagalkote), declamation (Chikkamagaluru, Mysuru, and Udupi), story writing (Bagalkot, Tumkuru, and Ramnagar), and painting (Mysuru, Gadag and Bengaluru Urban).

Some contestants raised their voices, stating that their performances weren’t considered for the prizes and the judges of the competitions hadn’t acted transparently. But the judges and deputy commissioner Harshal Bhoyar convinced the contestants, denying any favouritism, and said teams have been chosen for the award purely based on their performances on the stage and merits.

MLA Channareddy Patil Tunnur gave away the awards to the winner teams. Bhoyar and other officers were present.