Former BJP spokesperson and political commentator Shehzad Poonawalla participated in Amazon Prime Video’s reality show Rise & Fall season 2 and emerged as the winner, beating Priyanka Chahar Choudhary and Gautam Gulati. He also won ₹ 35 lakh in prize money, which he pledged towards flood relief efforts in Bihar and Assam. However, not everyone was pleased with his victory.
Tej Pratap Yadav , who was not part of the finale, called it “vote chori” and said that Gautam Gulati deserved to win.
Shehzad hit back at Tej Pratap for calling his Rise & Fall season 2 victory ‘vote chori’. And see, the good thing is that I gave my money, whatever I won to the People of Bihar for the flood, so maybe whatever wealth they have looted from the people of Bihar, maybe they can just divert some of that and give it back to the people of Bihar; it will be better for his reputation also. Tej Pratap and Shehzad had shared a friendly bond inside the penthouse, making the politician’s remarks particularly disappointing for the winner. He brought up the corruption allegations against Tej Pratap’s family, referring to the fodder scam and alleged irregularities in Group C and Group D job recruitments. He also drew a comparison with political reactions to election results, saying that people often question the EVMs after losing an election. He would ask me what to do next, what to vote. Then he was very scared, too, like, what if I go to the basement? So he got so scared that he ran away from the show. After Shezad lifted the trophy of the show, Tej Pratap took to X, shared a picture with Gautam Gulati and wrote, “Gautam Gulati was the one who deserved to win, and the public’s love and support were entirely behind him. But what can we say now… the public’s votes were stolen here too. Reality shows aren’t fair anymore either! Gautam Gulati was the one who truly deserved it, but the trophy was handed to their favourite instead. This is a huge betrayal of the public’s votes and feelings in the name of a reality show.”
In an interview with Hindustan Times, Shehzad hit back at Tej Pratap over his comments and claimed that the politician had “run away” from the show out of fear of being sent to the basement. Shehzad said Tej Pratap should be careful about accusing others of theft, given the allegations against his family. Similarly, he said that contestants tend to blame the show and its makers when they lose a reality show. Shezad further talked about Tej Pratap’s gameplay and said, “So unfortunately Tej Pratap never kind of knew anything about this show. So I told him, ‘Don’t worry if you go to the basement; we will help you. Shehzad took a dig at Tej Pratap, calling him the “joker of Indian politics”. He said that while political leaders have different roles, Tej Pratap was the joker and added, “I don’t think anybody in Bihar takes him seriously. The BJP supporters made their old yes-man—the one who kept saying “yes, sir, yes, sir”—Shehzad Poonawalla the winner, to reward him for his sycophancy.
Shehzad further pointed out that the format used to select the winner was the same as the previous season, when Arjun Bijlani, Aarush Bola and Arbaaz were competing for the title, except that this time it was a tie and it went into a tiebreaker
