BJP's Asansol candidate Pawan Singh steps aside from Lok Sabha contest, TMC mocks decision

Bhojpuri singer-actor Pawan Singh withdrew his name from the Lok Sabha poll contest from Asansol seat in West Bengal on Sunday, a day after the BJP named him as its candidate from the constituency currently represented by Trinamool Congress's Shatrughan Sinha.

The TMC was quick to mock the BJP by saying it surrendered the seat even before the commencement of the election campaign.

In a post on X, Singh thanked the BJP leadership for his candidature but added that he will not be able to contest from Asansol ''due to some reason''.

Though he did not specify the reason for his decision, his candidature had drawn criticism from the TMC, which alleged that many of his songs were crude and depicted women, including those from the state, in a vulgar way.

TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee shared Singh's post on X and said, ''The INDOMITABLE SPIRIT AND POWER OF THE PEOPLE OF WEST BENGAL.'' Asansol is home to a sizeable migrant population, and the BJP had hoped that Singh would be an effective counter to Sinha, the actor-politician who was in the saffron party for decades before walking out in 2019.

The BJP apparently decided to nudge Singh to step aside from the contest to defuse the controversy, more so when the party has seized on the Sandeshkhali row to go after the TMC leadership.

Many women in Sandeshkhali have accused suspended TMC leader Shajahan Sheikh and his associates of sexual assault and land grabbing. Sheikh and many of his cronies have been arrested.

Former Asansol MP from BJP and current TMC minister Babul Supriyo said it was impossible that the BJP would name a candidate in their first list without taking his consent and cited ''pressure'' from the saffron party which prompted Pawan Singh to withdraw from the race.

''Pressure from @BJP4India on him to withdraw citing 'personal reasons!!,'' Supriyo, who joined the TMC after leaving the BJP following the 2021 assembly polls, said.

Claiming that BJP was defending Singh's candidature till the controversy about his nomination became full blown, he told reporters, ''Even today morning, we had BJP defending his candidature!! Now they admit it was an insult to Bengali women and Bengali sensibilities that BJP never ever understood in the first place.'' Describing BJP as a ''misogynist party which has given nomination to not more than 13 per cent women in the past as elected representatives,'' Supriyo said, ''They (BJP) had initially thought Singh's nomination would help them get votes in Asansol as they have no idea about Bengali sensibilities. Then they realised his candidature will create such a bad impact on the women of Bengal.'' Actor-turned-Trinamool Congress MP Shatrughan Sinha termed the development as an internal affairs of the BJP.

The veteran actor said, ''I don't know him (Singh) personally very well. But heard he is a singer, an artist and some of my acquaintances know him.'' Sinha, affectionately known as 'Bihari Babu' among his supporters, clinched victory in the Asansol Lok Sabha bypolls on a TMC ticket following Babul Supriyo's resignation in 2021. Sinha claimed that he would secure victory by a margin exceeding 4 lakh votes in the upcoming polls against any BJP contender. This assertion was made in the presence of state law minister and senior TMC leader from Asansol, Malay Ghatak, who nodded in agreement.

''Yes I am Bihari Babu, but I am Bangali Babu and Hindustani Babu as well. I am your people,'' he told reporters.

Describing Mamata Banerjee as the most popular leader in the country, Sinha said ''I am her foot soldier.'' When asked to comment on memes featuring Shatrughan Sinha's dialogue from his roles as a villain in various Hindi films, Babul Supriyo remarked, ''It once again shows how stubborn the BJP can be. Now I realise that I spent eight years in such a party for all the wrong reasons.'' He further accused the BJP of adopting an anti-women stance, saying, ''While the state administration here has arrested accused TMC leader Shahjahan Sheikh and levied several stringent sections against him, and the party suspended him for six years, I would like to know if the BJP ever took any action against one of its leaders accused of molestation or sexual misconduct against women.'' Asked about the outburst of senior TMC leader Kunal Ghosh against veteran MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay accusing him of helping the BJP and demanding a probe into his bank accounts, Supriyo said, ''The higher leadership of the party is looking into the issue.'' Amit Malviya, the BJP's co-incharge for West Bengal, said, ''TMC leaders are a bunch of jokers who have suddenly found their voice after keeping quiet for 60 days. The women raped in Sandeshkhali were Bengali, who Mamata Banerjee called 'bohiragoto (outsiders)'. No one vilifies Bengali women more than her, as she continues to defend Sheikh Shajahan.''