NEW DELHI: Within 24 hours of the announcement of its first candidate list, BJP’s Lok Sabha poll preparedness in West Bengal received a jolt on Sunday after Bhojpuri singer Pawan Singh, who was nominated for Asansol constituency, decided not to join the fray “due to some reasons”.
Singh expressed his unwillingness to contest after the ruling TMC launched a scathing attack on the Bihar-based 38-year-old singer shortly after the BJP announced his name as the candidate from the Bengal’s constituency bordering Hindi-speaking region of eastern India. The Bengal’s ruling party targeted the saffron camp saying several songs performed by its candidate in Asansol made “lewd and uncivilised remarks about Bengali women”.
“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,” Singh, who was BJP’s first list of 20 candidates for state’s 42 seats, said on his X handle.
After the Bhojpuri’s name was announced as a candidate on Saturday, Babul Supriyo, former BJP MP from Asansol and presently a cabinet minister in Mamata Banerjee’s government, described the saffron camp as anti-Bengali for nominating Sigh.
“Fielding Pawan Singh from Asansol shows their insensitivity against Bengali women. In terms of offending Bengali women & painting them in an utterly disrespectful light in Film titles & Songs, Pawanji (nothing against him as an artist, I reiterate) projects Bengali Songs & Films is surely a repeat offender!! The first list in itself is the last nail on the coffin of BJP in Bengal,” Supriyo wrote on X.
Dhortly after Singh, withdrawal announcement, TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee took to X and said, “The INDOMITABLE SPIRIT AND POWER PF THE PEOPLE OF WEST BENGAL.”
In the 2019 general elections, Singer Babul Supriyo won in Asansol on BJP ticket for a consecutive term by defwating TMC’s actor candidate Moon Moon Sen. He changed his political allegiance two years later and joined the BJP. In the by-election, the TMC snatched the seat from the BJP by fielding Bollywood star Shatrughan Sinha.
Taking a jibe at the BJP over Singh’s candidature, TMC Rajya Sabha MP Sagarika Ghose saying that “nari Shakti” call in Bengal now lies in tatters, revealed for what it is—hollow & meaningless.
“@BJP4India Asansol candidate withdraws after huge backlash on the candidate’s sexist misogynist videos. The @BJP4India’s “nari sakti” call in Bnegal now lies in tatters, revealed for what it is—hollow & meaningless,” she said on a post on X.