Fans of Manoj Tiwari burn effigy of actor Salman Khan at Dakbungalow Road on Sunday. Picture by Rohan Kumar

Patna, Dec. 5: Hundreds of fans of Manoj Tiwari today burnt effigy of Salman Khan, the host of Bigg Boss season four, at Dakbungalow roundabout.

Tiwari was evicted yesterday from the Bigg Boss house after a nine-week stay. Tiwari was nominated along with Ashmit Patel, who got more number of votes than Tiwari.

Members of Manoj Tiwari Fans Club protested against Tiwari’s eviction, alleging partiality in the SMS voting. They demanded to see the SMS voting results, which got Tiwari evicted from the house.

Manish Kumar, president of Manoj Tiwari Fans Club, said: “There is a conspiracy behind Manojji’s eviction. How can someone be evicted without showing the number of votes he has received? This is partiality and we, diehard fans of Manoj Tiwari, will not tolerate this at any cost.”

Kumar added: “There are 26 crore Bhojpuri-speaking people all over the world. Manojji’s eviction has hurt the sentiments of all these people. There will be a great repercussion of this episode. We, all Bhojpuri people, have decided to boycott Bigg Boss and request others to join our protest to save the respect of the Bhojpuri language.”

Another fan, Niranjan Singh, said: “Salman Khan and Colors have done a big mistake by throwing Manojji out of the house. Manojji has a great fan following and the show’s high ratings were only because of him. Now that he is evicted we are sure the ratings would go down.”

Tiwari from Mumbai said over phone: “Yes, my fans are angry as they wanted me to win but I do not support burning Salman Khan’s effigy. I would request them not to create trouble for others. It is a great relief now that I am evicted. I am grateful to Big Boss. It seemed like a jail inside the house and my wife is also in the hospital. For an actor like me, who is fond of singing, a break is not good for my voice. Now I can freely do whatever I want.”

Tiwari added: “I feel sorry for Shweta Tiwari because I shouted at her before leaving the house. In the beginning, I was very frank with everyone but slowly everybody started to show their real colour. I didn’t like that.”

On the voting, Tiwari said: “I told Salman bhai that Ashmit can never defeat me in voting percentage. I realised there is some conspiracy against me. I firmly believe it.”

However, he requested his fans to forget the incident like a bad dream. “Even though there is anger, nothing can be done now. I request my fans to control their emotion and forget the issue,” Tiwari said.

Asked about his nomination before stepping out of the house, Tiwari said he had nominated Sameer Soni and Sara Khan.