Ranchi, Aug 7 (IANS) Deepak Tirkey, who last week won the TV reality show 'Chak De Bachche', was accorded a warm welcome when he reached his home city Ranchi Thursday.

More than 2,000 people gathered at the Birsa Munda roundabout to welcome the little star and shouted slogans like 'Deekak Tirkey zindabad' (long live Deepak Tirkey) and 'Jharkhand ke lal, tune kiya kamal' (Son of Jharkhand, you have done wonders).

Hundreds of students of the Lala Rajpat Rai school, Deepak's school, were waiting for him since 11 a.m. though Deepak reached here only around 6 p.m. He was welcomed in the tribal tradition by washing his feet as people danced to the drum beats.

'We are proud of Deepak Tirkey. It was a tough competition and Deepak emerged winner. It is a big achievement for us,' said Gulshan Lal Ajmani, president of the school.

The grand finale of 'Chak De Bachche' was telecast Saturday night and was attended by Indian cricketers Mahendra Singh Dhoni, also from Ranchi, and Yuvraj Singh.

Deepak and Nishtha Nag Chaudhury of small towners' team called Desi Dhuranders were declared the winners, as they beat Varun Sohal and Loria Doshi of Metro Rockers, the city kids, in the 18-week contest.

While Nishtha is from Udaipur, Varun and Loria are from Ludhiana and Jaipur, respectively.

The Jharkhand government has also announced plans to honour Tirkey.