Patna. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday expelled Bhojpuri actor Pawan Singh from the party for contesting the Lok Sabha elections against the official candidate of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Rashtriya Lok Morcha president and former Union Minister Upendra Kushwaha is contesting as NDA candidate from Karakat seat.
In a letter issued by Bihar BJP state headquarters in-charge Arvind Sharma and addressed to Pawan Singh, it is said, “In the Lok Sabha elections, you are contesting against the authorized candidate of NDA. This action of yours is anti-party, due to which the image of the party has been tarnished and you have done this against party discipline. It is said in the letter, situation? For this anti-party act, you are expelled from the party as per the orders of the party state president.”
Singh, in one of his posts on the social media platform ‘X’, compared himself with the Mahabharata character Abhimanyu and wrote, “Yesterday too, Abhimanyu was alone in the Mahabharata. While Krishna and Pandavas were there, they were surrounded by demons and killed in the Chakravyuha. Even today Abhimanyu is alone in the battle but the public is with him.” In some of his other posts, Singh has talked about “construction of new Karakat” and in some he has mentioned “Vachhan Patra” (his promises). Voting is to be held in the last phase of Lok Sabha elections in Karakat on June 1.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address three rallies on May 25 and one of these public meetings is proposed in Karakat constituency.
Singh was a member of BJP for many years. He had rejected the party ticket from Asansol in West Bengal about a month ago. Senior actor and leader Shatrughan Sinha is contesting elections again from Asansol as a Trinamool Congress candidate. Sinha also belongs to Bihar.
Singh is believed to have decided not to contest from there after a controversy erupted over several of his songs that were allegedly misogynistic and insulting Bengalis. There were rumours that Pawan Singh was seeking a ticket from Bihar’s Ara Lok Sabha seat, but the party had told him that it would not cut the ticket of sitting MP Union Minister RK Singh from the seat.
Pawan Singh had announced to contest elections from Karakat on April 10 and filed his nomination as an independent candidate from this constituency on May 9. Pawan Singh’s mother Pratima Devi had also filed her nomination from Karakat seat on May 14, but she later withdrew her nomination. There was speculation that Pratima Devi had filed her nomination at the behest of her son, because Pawan Singh was afraid of his nomination being rejected.