Bhojpuri Singer Pawan Singh Withdraws From Asansol Poll Race Following Social Media Backlash, Hours After BJP Announced His Name; TMC Calls Out BJP “Anti Bengali, Anti Women”

His name was announced by Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) on Saturday as their candidate from the Asansol LokSabha constituency in West Bengal but the Bhojpuri singer-turned-actor Pawan Singh has decided to withdraw his name from the poll race on Sunday amidst fierce criticism flooding social media over his body of work, as netizens termed his music videos “vulgar and distasteful”.

“I express my heartfelt gratitude to the top leadership of 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 wrote on ‘X’, less than 12 hours after his name was announced. Singh, in videos doing rounds, was seen seated on the floor of a gym, in the middle of his workout, anxiously waiting during BJP’s press conference on Saturday, for the announcement and then soon broke into celebrations after his name was announced. But that was on Saturday and things changed by Sunday morning.

Trinamool Congress has hit out at BJP for the choice of candidature, calling it as the party’s reflection of “misogynistic and anti-women” ideas. The party had launched a massive social media campaign against Singh, videos and posters of Singh’s work were attached to their social media diatribes, trying to prove the voyeurism in the videos where “women as Bengali women have been shown in poor light”.

TMC National General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee welcomed Singh’s decision but attributed the pushback to “The INDOMITABLE SPIRIT AND POWER OF THE PEOPLE OF WEST BENGAL.” (As posted on ‘X’)

“PM Modi is anti-Bengali. He came here and lectured on ‘Naari Shakti’ and then gave a ticket to someone who has vilified Bengali women. That is Modi ki guarantee- if you speak ill of Bengal, ill of women then they will give you a ticket”, said TMC Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brian.

Interestingly BJP IT cell Incharge Amit Malviya had come out in defence of Pawan Singh on Saturday and lashed out at TMC for attacking a popular Bhojpuri artist.

“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”, Malviya posted on ‘X’ on Saturday.​