Bhojpuri actor and singer Pawan Singh turned down Lok Sabha candidacy a day after saffron party announced his candidacy from West Bengal's Asansol seat.
The withdrawal of candidacy by Pawan Singh came after many opposition leaders accused the BJP candidate of insulting Bengali songs and culture while sharing clips of his songs.
Taking to X, Pawan Singh wrote, "Pawan Singh tweets, "I express my heartfelt gratitude to the top leadership of Bharatiya Janata Party. The party trusted me and declared me as the candidate from West Bengal's Asansol but due to some reason, I will not be able to contest the elections from Asansol…".
BJP Asansol (South) MLA, Agnimitra Paul however said that the party will ‘look’ into the matter.
“There could be some problem and the party will look into it,” Paul said.
Trinamool Congress however, slammed BJP for fielding Pawan Singh as he is allegedly ‘anti Bengali women’.
Talking to the media, former Asansol BJP MP and presently TMC minister Babul Supriyo said that the videos of Singh clearly states that he is ‘anti Bengali women’.
“BJP will not announce anyone’s name without discussing the same with the candidate. Just due to the backlash of people, Singh was asked to make a post in his X handle to turn the face.
“BJP is anti-Bengali. For the last 10 years that they are in power, they didn’t allow any Bengali to work. Sometimes I feel that I have wasted eight years in a wrong party,” said Babul.
Notably, the candidature of 38-year-old Singh, a resident of Bihar from a seat in Bengal had created several backlashes and soon after Singh withdrew his candidature, TMC MP Derek O’ Brien dubbed it as ‘This is Khela Hobe even before the khela begins’.
Taking to X, TMC national secretary Abhishek Banerjee said, “The pullout was a result of the indomitable spirit and people of the people of West Bengal.”
It may be recalled that both in 2014 and 2019 BJP has won the Asansol Lok Sabha seat and after former Asansol BJP MP Babul Supriyo resigned from the post and the party, in a bypoll in 2022, TMCs Shatrughan Sinha won the Asansol seat.
