Aday after his name was announced as the official candidate of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the Asansol Lok Sabha seat, Bhojpuri actor-cum-playback singer Pawan Singh in his official X handle today announced that he will not contest the polls. This incident has created a huge stir in state politics today.

National general secretary of TMC, Abhishek Banerjee has also retweeted Singh’s post with the comment: “The indomitable spirit and power of the people of West Bengal.” Yesterday, the BJP has announced the names of 195 candidates in its first list as Lok Sabha candidates, which also included the name of Pm Narendra Modi from Varanasi. Pawan Singh, a Bhojpuri playback singer-cum-actor was a surprise choice, but the saffron brigade planned to pit him against another ‘Bihari babu’, Shatrughan Sinha of the Trinamul Congress in the prestigious Asansol Lok Sabha seat. Former Asansol MP and Union minister Babul Supriyo and TMC’s Sagarika Ghosh have also commented in their X handle yesterday about Pawan Singh stating that he has very little respect for the women of Bengal.

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“I don’t know him ( Pawan Singh) and has never heard his name and welcomed him to contest the polls from Asansol. Also have no knowledge why he has withdrawal his name. My personal opinion is that the BJP will not be able to cross 200 seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls,”said former Union minister and sitting Asansol MP Shatrughan Sinha. Speculation is rife now that that former Asansol Municipal Corporation (AMC), Mayor, Jitendra Tiwari is the leading candidate for the BJP ticket, as the saffron party will now try to field a bhoomiputra (son of the soil) in Asansol instead of outsiders. More than 30 per cent of the people of Asansol are non-Bengali and this huge vote bank plays a key role and becomes a deciding factor in the Lok Sabha polls.

Pawan Singh tweeted that he is withdrawing due to his personal reasons. So far there has been no official comment on this issue from the BJP. Singh has tagged BJP national president J.P.Nadda in his announcement on his X handle. In the 2022 by-elections, actor Satrughan Sinha had won by a margin of over three lakhs. He has also started his poll campaign already and wall graffiti in all the seven constituencies have come up.

CM Mamata Banerjee has also allotted different responsibilities to each local heavyweight leadership of West Burdwan during her meeting in Durgapur a few days ago.