The campaign season is on in Noida - billboards are being put up, stickers are being put on car windshields and pamphlets are being distributed at various major intersections in the city. But this is not a campaign by political party members and activists for the upcoming UP polls. The campaigners here are the supporters of who they call the "most popular person from Noida right now" - 'Bigg Boss 10' contestant Manveer Gurjar. The Sector 41 resident is currently an inmate of the house in the popular reality show and his friends and family back home are leaving no stone unturned to make sure that all of Noida is reminded to vote for him.

Manveer's younger brother, Sachin Baisoya, is heading the campaign. He told us, "Initially, we had started door-to-door campaigning in our village, Agahpur, but we soon realized that we needed to do more. So we got hoardings, car stickers, and flyers printed so that we can extensively campaign across Noida and Greater Noida."



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A billboard urging viewers to vote for Noida's Bigg Boss contestant being put up in Noida (BCCL)


The family got 200 billboards, 500 posters, and several hundred flyers and cloth banners made from Hajipur in Noida - all of these have a large picture of Manveer and urge viewers to vote for him, giving details of how to vote as well. The 'campaign team' says that the total expenditure on the exercise has crossed `1.5 lakh. "We even hired a few professionals from Hajipur and took them to Greater Noida where we put those hoardings up near major colleges and universities," said Sachin.






On Thursday, Manveer's friends and family spent the entire day putting up promotional posters and hoardings in Greater Noida's Knowledge Park and near Pari Chowk, turning their attention to Noida on Friday. They put up posters and hoardings in Sector 18, Rajnigandha Chowk, Sector 26, DM Chowk, and City Centre on that day. In the afternoon, they positioned themselves outside the malls near Sector 18 and handed out flyers to passing motorists, urging them to vote for Manveer. "Flyers toh sab le rahe hain par car sticker lagwane ke liye koi nahi maan raha," Sachin said.




Anuj, a motorist who was stopped by the team near GIP mall, said, "At first, I thought it was some political party workers distributing pamphlets. So I was surprised to see the Bigg Boss contestant's name and face on it. This is the most unique kind of campaigning I have seen for a reality show ever. Trust Noida people to come up with something like this."



But Manveer's supporters are worried that their efforts might go waste if any political party decides to put up its posters on top of the ones they have put up. Sachin said, "The election season in UP is here and we fear that people might remove our posters to put up theirs. We are meeting the district magistrate soon to request him if he can somehow ensure that our billboards and posters remain undisturbed till the time Manveer is on the show. After all, Noida ka naam roshan kar raha hai woh TV pe."