After the withdrawal of Pawan Singh, the popular Bhojpuri film superstar and playback singer as candidate for the prestigious Asansol Lok Sabha seat, speculation is rife that another popular Bhojpuri film actress Akhshara Singh will get the BJP ticket from the seat.

The BJP has announced the list of its 195 candidates in the first list published on Saturday evening, which included the high profile Asansol Lok Sabha seat.

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Since 2014 Bollywood personalities have dominated the political scenario of Asansol Lok Sabha seat. Playback singer Babul Supriyo won it twice in 2014 and 2019, defeating another Tollywood actress Monn Moon Sen of the TMC. But in the 2022 by-election, Bihari babu, a surprise choice of TMC chief Mamata Banerjee turned the tide in favour of the Trinamul Congress for the first time.

Within three years from a victory margin of 1,96,000 in 2019, the BJP lost to over three lakh votes in 2022. ‘Ghorer meye’ Agnimitra Paul was no match for Bollywood’s Mr Khamosh, it seemed.

Babul Supriyo and MP Sagarika Ghosh and then Mohua Mitra all tweeted about the selection of Pawan Singh. In fact, the first wife of Pawan Singh has committed suicide and the second wife has also lodged complaints, the songs and posters of his videos were also uploaded in the X handle which probably forced the BJP think tank to force Pawan Singh to withdraw.

Talking to The Statesman, Babul Supriyo said that he feels that the BJP has forced Pawan Singh to withdraw his candidature to save their face after the massive public backlash in the social media since his name was announced.

“The BJP feels that he will match Shatrughan Sinha ji and woo the Hindi speaking voters of Asansol. These people have no knowledge of Asansol and have very little respect for the state. It proves that BJP is dearth of leadership and candidates in West Bengal,” he claimed.

Akshara Singh, Bhojpuri film heroine is also immensely popular. After the withdrawal of Pawan Singh, the BJP has gone on the back foot.

Jitendra Tiwari, another Hindi-speaking local leader is a strong contender, but the saffron brigade wants to put somebody who will be able to woo the young voters and non-Bengali voters, besides the personal charisma of PM Narendra Modi to wrest back the seat again from the TMC.

She also hails from Bihar and to stop the consecutive win of Shatrughan Sinha, the name of Akshara Singh is under active consideration, sources said.