BJP Suspends Bhojpuri Actor For Contesting As Independent Against NDA Nominee

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday suspended Bhojpuri actor and singer Pawan Singh from the party for contesting the Lok Sabha elections as an independent candidate against an NDA nominee.

Mr Singh, who had earlier turned down a BJP ticket for Asansol in West Bengal, is contesting polls from the Karakat Lok Sabha seat in Bihar. Former Union minister Upendra Kushwaha, who heads the Rashtriya Lok Morcha, is contesting as the NDA candidate from the south Bihar constituency.

"You are contesting the Lok Sabha elections against the official candidate of the NDA. This act of yours is against the party and has tarnished the party's image and violated party discipline," the BJP's Bihar unit said in a letter to Mr Singh.

"The decision to suspend you has been taken by Bihar BJP president Samrat Chaudhary," the statement read further.

Besides him, Mr Singh's mother, Pratima Singh, has also filed the nomination paper from the same seat as an independent candidate.

The Karakat constituency is set to vote on June 1 in the seventh and final phase of the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.

"Fulfilling Vow"

Pawan Singh has said that he is fighting the Lok Sabha polls to honour the promise he made to his mother.

"I will fight the elections to fulfill the promise I made to my mother, my society, and the people," he had written on X on March 13, days after expressing his inability to contest the Lok Sabha elections from Asansol.

He was fielded by the BJP against actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha, the sitting Trinamool Congress MP from Asansol.

Mr Singh had not specified the reason behind his withdrawal, which came amid his candidature drawing criticism from the Trinamool Congress. The party had alleged that some of his songs were crude and depicted women, including those from West Bengal, in a vulgar way.