BJP first list: Asansol candidate Pawan Singh says can't contest Lok Sabha elections
In a post on X (formerly Twitter) addressed to BJP president JP Nadda, he said that due to some reason, he won't be able to contest the elections.
In a major setback for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Bhojpuri actor and playback singer Pawan Singh on Sunday announced that he will not contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections from West Bengal's Asansol. The announcement came a day after the BJP released its first list of candidates for the general elections. He, however, didn't reveal the reason behind his decision.
Read here: Lok Sabha polls 2024: Four Bhojpuri stars in BJP' first list. Who are they?
In a post on X (formerly Twitter) addressed to BJP president JP Nadda, he said that due to some reason, he won't be able to contest the elections.
“I express my heartfelt gratitude to the top leadership of Bharatiya Janata Party. The party trusted me and declared me as the candidate from Asansol but due to some reason I will not be able to contest the elections from Asansol," he said.
The party on Saturday released its much-awaited first list of 195 candidates for the upcoming parliamentary polls.
Pawan Singh is a famous Bhojpuri actor and playback singer known for the famous Bhojpuri song Lollipop Lagelu.
Pawan Singh hails from Bihar's Arrah and his fans call him "power star" of the Bhojpuri film industry.
Just after the announcement, TMC Rajya Sabha MP Sagarika Ghose took a jibe at the BJP over Singh's candidature and his denial saying that "nari shakti" call in Bengal now lies in tatters, revealed for what it is--hollow & meaningless.
"Breaking news. @AITCofficial impact! @BJP4India Asansol candidate withdraws after huge backlash on the candidate's sexist misogynist videos. The @BJP4India's "nari shakti" call in Bengal now lies in tatters, revealed for what it is--hollow & meaningless," she said in a post on X.
Meanwhile, the TMC has not announced its candidate from Asansol, which is currently represented by Shatrughan Sinha.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, famous singer Babul Supriyo won this seat on a BJP ticket after defeating TMC's Moon Moon Sen. Two years later, he resigned from the seat and joined the TMC. In 2022, Sinha was elected to the Lok Sabha from Asansol.
Besides Singh, the party announced three other Bhojpuri actors as its candidates---Manoj Tiwari from North-east Delhi, Ravi Kishan from Uttar Pradesh's Gorakhpur, Dinesh Lal Yadav alias Nirahua from Azamgarh.
The BJP announced candidates on 20 seats out of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal in its first list.
The party, however, this time denied a ticket to state chief and Nandigram MLA Suvendu Adhikari and instead fielded his younger brother Soumendu Adhikari -- a former Trinamool Congress MP from the Tamluk constituency -- from Contai in East Midnapore. Their father Sisir Adhikari is the current MP from the seat.
Here's the list of 20 candidates announced for West Bengal:
Nisith Pramanik - Cooch Behar (SC)
Manoj Tigga - Alipurduars (ST)
Dr. Sukanta Majumdar - Balurghat
Khagen Murmu - Maldaha Uttar
Sreerupa Mitra Chowdhury - Maldaha Dakshin
Dr. Nirmal Kumar Saha - Baharampur
Shri Gauri Shankar Ghosh - Murshidabad
Jagannath Sarkar - Ranaghat (SC)
Shantanu Thakur - Bangaon (SC)
Dr. Ashok Kandari - Joynagar (SC)
Dr. Anirban Ganguly - Jadavpur
Dr. Rathin Chakraborty - Howrah
Locket Chatterjee - Hooghly
Soumendu Adhikari - Kanthi
Hiranmay Chattopadhyay - Ghatal
Jyotirmay Singh Mahato - Purulia
Dr. Shubash Sarkar - Bankura
Soumitra Khan - Bishnupur
Pawan Singh - Asansol
Priya Saha - Bolpur (SC)
Among the 20 candidates fielded in West Bengal, three are women candidates – Locket Chatterjee, Sreerupa Mitra Chowdhury and Priya Saha.
Read here: In Bengal, BJP fields Soumendu Adhikari from Contai, Pawan Singh from Asansol
On Saturday, PM Modi, who was on a two-day visit to West Bengal, said 'lotus' (BJP’s symbol) would bloom in all 42 seats in West Bengal. In the 2019 general elections, the BJP had set a target to win 22 seats and bagged 18.
The BJP's first list includes 51 seats from Uttar Pradesh, 24 from Madhya Pradesh, 20 from West Bengal, 15 each from Gujarat and Rajasthan, 12 from Kerala, nine from Telangana, 11 each from Assam, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, five from Delhi, three from Uttarakhand, two each from Arunachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir and one each from Goa, Tripura, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and Daman and Diu.
