BJP has today released the list of 195 candidates for the Lok Sabha elections 2024. There was a lot of discussion that Bollywood actor and Delhi’s Munda Akshay Kumar could be a candidate from Chandni Chowk Lok Sabha seat in Delhi, but this did not prove to be true. Akshay Kumar’s house is in Chandni Chowk area, that is why there was a lot of discussion about removing him from here. Hema Malini is the only face from Bollywood in the first list of BJP, while four actors from Bhojpuri film industry have got tickets. Manoj Tiwari, Ravi Kishan and Dinesh Lal Yadav alias Nirahua are already BJP MPs. This time, another big face of Bhojpuri film industry, Pawan Singh has also entered the fray as a Lok Sabha candidate.
Bengal is in my blood: Pawan Singh
Pawan Singh has been made the BJP candidate from Asansol in West Bengal. Currently, Shatrughan Sinha, a Bollywood actor and a resident of Bihar, is the Trinamool Congress MP from here. Singer Babul Supriyo had won this seat on BJP ticket in 2019, but he later joined Trinamool Congress and then Shatrughan Sinha reached Lok Sabha in the 2021 by-election. If Trinamool Congress again gives ticket to Shatrughan Singh here, then Asansol will see a contest between two sons of Bihar. On the question of possible contest with Shatrughan Sinha after getting the ticket, Pawan Singh said that I have grown up watching him, but the ideology of both of us is different now. Pawan Sinha said that my father used to work in Bengal and I was born there too, so Bengal is in my blood.
There were already three MPs
Among the four Bhojpuri actors, Manoj Tiwari has been associated with BJP for the longest time. Manoj Tiwari was earlier associated with Samajwadi Party and he contested the 2009 elections from Gorakhpur on its ticket but he was defeated. After this, he joined BJP before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and became MP from Delhi for two consecutive terms. BJP has made him its candidate from North-East Delhi Lok Sabha constituency for the third time. However, this time there was talk that the party could make him the party candidate from Buxar, Bihar. Ravi Kishan came to BJP through Congress. In 2014, he contested from Jaunpur on Congress ticket, but was defeated badly. After this, in 2019, he switched to BJP and became MP from Gorakhpur. BJP has once again made Dinesh Lal Yadav alias Nirahua its candidate from Azamgarh. However, Nirahua had recently fueled speculation by saying that if SP supremo Akhilesh Yadav does not contest the elections from Azamgarh, then I will demand from the party that wherever he contests the elections, I should also be given a ticket from there.
