New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has suspended Bhojpuri actor and singer Pawan Singh for contesting the Lok Sabha elections as an independent candidate against an NDA nominee.
Mr. Singh, who previously declined a BJP ticket for Asansol in West Bengal, is now running for the Karakat Lok Sabha seat in Bihar. The NDA candidate for this constituency is former Union minister Upendra Kushwaha, leader of the Rashtriya Lok Morcha.
In a letter to Mr. Singh, the BJP's Bihar unit stated, "You are contesting the Lok Sabha elections against the official candidate of the NDA. This act of yours is against the party, has tarnished the party's image, and violated party discipline." The decision to suspend Mr. Singh was made by Bihar BJP president Samrat Chaudhary.
Adding to the controversy, Mr. Singh's mother, Pratima Singh, has also submitted her nomination as an independent candidate from the same seat.
The Karakat constituency will vote on June 1, in the seventh and final phase of the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.
Mr. Singh has stated that he is running in the election to fulfill a promise to his mother. "I will fight the elections to fulfill the promise I made to my mother, my society, and the people," he posted on X on March 13, shortly after withdrawing his candidacy for Asansol.
Originally, the BJP had fielded Mr. Singh against Trinamool Congress MP Shatrughan Sinha in Asansol. However, his candidacy faced backlash from the Trinamool Congress, which criticized some of his songs as crude and vulgar, particularly towards women from West Bengal.
Mr. Singh has not publicly disclosed the specific reasons for his withdrawal from the Asansol candidacy