Kolkata: Bhojpuri actor-singer Pawan Singh, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) candidate from West Bengal’s Asansol parliamentary seat, announced Sunday that he would not contest the upcoming general elections from the state. This comes after Singh’s candidature, announced the day before, drew backlash from not only political rivals but also from within the party.
At the root of their objections were Singh’s songs in which he allegedly objectifies Bengali women.
Singh was pitted against TMC’s Shatrugan Sinha, a veteran actor-turned-politician who is Asansol’s incumbent MP. The seat was once represented by Babul Supriyo.
The Bhojpuri star is also BJP’s only candidate nominated from outside West Bengal so far.
“I express my heartfelt gratitude to the top leadership of the 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 said in a post on X.
भारतीय जनता पार्टी के शीर्ष नेतृत्व को दिल से आभार प्रकट करता हु।
पार्टी ने मुझ पर विश्वास करके आसनसोल का उम्मीदवार घोषित किया लेकिन किसी कारण वश में आसनसोल से चुनाव नहीं लड़ पाऊंगा…@JPNadda
— Pawan Singh (@PawanSingh909) March 3, 2024
The BJP has yet to officially comment on the development.
Pawan Singh, 38, was one of 20 candidates from West Bengal whose names were announced in the party’s first list Saturday.
The post came hours after the popular Bhojpuri star posted a video of himself celebrating his candidature at a gym.
Singh’s candidacy met with criticism not only from rivals but also from within the party, with leaders like former Meghalaya governor Tathagatha Roy asking the party to reconsider its decision.
“Unlike TMC, where candidature is decided by the whims and fancies of one woman, BJP chooses its candidates on a systematic survey. However, the surveyors are not infallible nor free from prejudice. A FRESH LOOK AT ASANSOL IS CALLED FOR. IMMEDIATELY, Roy wrote on X tagging Amit Shah and the party’s official X handles.
Unlike TMC, where candidature is decided by the whims and fancies of one woman, BJP chooses its candidates on a systematic survey. However, the surveyors are not infallible nor free from prejudice.
A FRESH LOOK AT ASANSOL IS CALLED FOR. IMMEDIATELY. @BJP4India @AmitShahOffice
— Tathagata Roy (@tathagata2) March 3, 2024
However, BJP’s IT cell in-charge Amit Malviya defended the party’s choice, without taking names.
It is rich to see TMC leaders denigrate a popular Bhojpuri artist for his body of work, when half of them have concubines or second wives, half their age, in some cases younger than their daughter from the first wife.
So, stop pontificating. Respect those, who work for a living.
— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) March 2, 2024
West Bengal has a total of 42 parliamentary seats. Of this, the BJP won 18 in the 2019 general election.
A resident of Bihar’s Arrah district, Pawan Singh joined the BJP in 2021 and is popular amongst the masses in Bihar.
A Tier-II city Asansol is the second largest and second most populated city after state capital-Kolkata. According to the 2011 Census, over 12 lakh people reside in Asansol. Known as the industrial belt due to the presence of coal blocks, the electorate is a mix of factory workers, miners, minorities, and working-class population. About 50 percent of the electorate is Hindi-speaking and traces its roots to neighbouring Jharkhand and Bihar.
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‘Head hangs in shame’, ‘surrendered one seat’ — rivals attack BJP
After his name was announced Saturday, Singh shared a video of himself celebrating with his supporters at a gym on his Facebook page.
But backlash soon followed, with TMC leader and Rajya Sabha MP Saket Gokhale even declaring that with the announcement, the BJP had already “surrendered” one seat.
Of the 42 seats in West Bengal, BJP has already surrendered 1 seat even before elections are declared 😂 https://t.co/JW0DPMBRPA
— Saket Gokhale (@SaketGokhale) March 3, 2024
TMC leader Derek O’Brien also commented on the matter.
#WATCH | TMC leader Derek O'Brien says, "Prime Minister Narendra Modi is anti-Bengali. He came here, lectured on 'Nari Shakti' and then gave a ticket to someone who has vilified Bengali women. That's the 'Modi ki guarantee'. If you speak ill of Bengal, if you speak ill of women,… pic.twitter.com/Mxm7pgofHC
— ANI (@ANI) March 3, 2024
The comments from former Asansol MP Babul Supriyo and senior Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi were in a similar vein.
“My head bends in shame after looking at the content created and propagated by BJP’s Asansol Lok Sabha candidate. The doom’s day of democracy is quite near,” Singhvi wrote in his post on X.
Asansol’s two-time MP Babul Supriyo, meanwhile, shared screenshots of Pawan Singh’s Bhojpuri music videos. The videos were titled ‘Bangal wali maal’, ‘Bangal se liyayem sautin’, and ‘Bangal ke pani’.
“Now 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, Pawan ji (nothing against him as an Artist, I reiterate) projects Bengali songs & films is surely a repeat offender,” Supriyo, who vacated the Asansol seat when he switched sides from the BJP to the TMC in 2021, said in his own post.
On his part, TMC’s current MP Shatrughan Sinha declined to comment on the controversy, saying only that his party was “confident of victory”.
“I wish him all the best. I have heard he is a popular singer, but I don’t know where he comes from,” Sinha, who won the Asansol parliamentary seat in 2022, told the media.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)