While her screen performances may have won her bouquets, Bollywood star Manisha Koirala got a taste of brickbats while campaigning for the controversial local polls in Nepal.

The actress, who is the granddaughter of the late B.P. Koirala, Nepal's first elected prime minister and one of the kingdom's most charismatic leaders, ran into bad publicity after she went to Biratnagar in eastern Nepal to campaign for the Feb 8 municipal elections.

While her grandfather's party, the Nepali Congress, is boycotting the elections, Manisha has thrown her weight behind her father Prakash Koirala who is supporting the poll and was made a minister in return for supporting King Gyanendra's power grab last year.

On Thursday, when Nepal was paralysed by the nationwide shutdown called by the seven opposition parties to protest against the king's rule and the elections, Manisha went to Biratnagar to propose the name of a mayoral candidate.

She filed nominations on behalf of Binod Arryal, a former member of the Nepali Congress who is now fighting as an independent candidate.

While star-struck youngsters lined up the road to catch a glimpse of Manisha, political activists shouted slogans, denouncing her participation in the poll campaign, a local daily reported Friday.

The slogans, however, left the star unfazed.

"I am not scared just because a handful of people are raising slogans against me," she said. "I feel good when there is a challenge. I have come here all the way from Mumbai to get Arryal elected."

The poll drama has divided the Koirala family.

While Manisha and her father are supporting the exercise, it is being opposed by her granduncle Girija Prasad Koirala, B.P.'s younger brother and former three-time prime minister of Nepal.

Manisha's aunt Sujata and two uncles, Shashank and Shekhar, are also opposing the polls.