London, July 03: India-born controversial author Salman Rushdie`s `Midnight`s Children` has established an unassailable lead over five other contenders in global public voting for the `Best of the Booker` award.

The winner will be formally announced on July 10 as part of the London Literature Festival at the Southbank centre in London but bookmakers have now closed betting on the award after Sir Rushdie`s `Midnight Children` emerged as the clear favourite.

"The voting pattern has been well established now and will not change," a senior executive of William Hill told a news agency on Thursday.

Public voting for the award is officially open till July 8 but bookmakers William Hill have `closed the book` and have stopped accepting bets. Rushdie (61) was the firm favourite at 6/4.

Rushdie was knighted by Queen Elizabeth Ii last month for his "services to literature."

Rushdie who has written a number of acclaimed books, went into hiding in 1989 after the publication of his controversial book, `The Satanic Verses`. The novel sparked widespread protests by Muslims and Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini issued a `fatwa` against him, saying the book was a blasphemy against Islam and sentenced him to death.

Besides Rushdie, the other five contenders are: Pat Parkers `The Ghost Road`, Peter Careys `Oscar and Lucinda`, J M Coetzees `Disgrace`, J G Farrells `The Siege Of Krishnapur` and Nadine Gordimers `The Conservationist`.

The award celebrates the 40th anniversary of the prestigious Man Booker Prize for Fiction. Millions of people voted for the one-off award on the internet, including from India, through online partnerships with national and international media, libraries, reading groups and book retailers.

The only time that a celebratory award was created previously was in 1993, on its 25th anniversary, when Rushdie won the `Booker of Bookers` award with `Midnight`s Children`.

The story, however, was different in the village of Comrie in Perthshire, when the BBC’s culture show flooded villagers with hundreds of copies of the six short-listed books and asked whether the villager’s choice will be the same as the actual winner.

It was a closely fought battle in the village for the first place as Farrells `the Siege Of Krishnapur` narrowly beat Rushdie`s `Midnight`s Children`.

Farrell`s satirical novel, detailing the siege of an Indian town during the Indian rebellion of 1857 told from three perspectives, emerged the most popular best of booker title in Comrie.

Bureau Report