Bhojpuri singer Pawan Singh throws his hat in the ring, names seat but keeps mum on party

'I had promised my mother that I would contest elections this time. I will stand from Karakat, Bihar, in the Lok Sabha polls. Jai Mata Di,' Singh wrote in a post in Hindi.

Patna: Bhojpuri singer Pawan Singh, who had turned down a BJP ticket for Asansol in West Bengal, on Wednesday said he will contest Lok Sabha polls from Karakat in his home state of Bihar.

Singh made the announcement on X but did not disclose whether he would be contesting as an Independent or as the candidate of a political party.

"One's mother carries greater weight than this earth. I had promised my mother that I would contest elections this time. I will stand from Karakat, Bihar, in the Lok Sabha polls. Jai Mata Di," Singh wrote in his Hindi post.

Notably, the announcement comes on a day the BJP has declared SS Ahluwalia, its sitting MP from Bardhaman-Durgapur, as the candidate from Asansol, where actor turned politician Shatrughan Sinha is seeking re-election on a Trinamool Congress ticket.

Singh, who hails from Bhojpur district in Bihar, and was said to be eyeing the Arrah seat where Union minister RK Singh is seeking re-election for a third consecutive term.

The Bhojpuri singer was named the party candidate from Asansol but he withdrew from the contest following a backlash over some of his songs with misogynistic lyrics that also denigrated the Bengali community.

Karakat goes to polls in the seventh phase of Lok Sabha elections and filing of nomination papers will begin in about a month from now.

The Bhojpuri singer, by entering the fray, would queer the pitch for former Union minister Upendra Kushwaha, an ex-MP from Karakat whose Rashtriya Lok Morcha has been assigned the seat by the NDA.

Kushwaha's principal challenge is likely to come from far-Left CPI(ML) Liberation, which will contest the seat on behalf of INDIA bloc, and has fielded veteran peasant leader and former MLA Raja Ram Singh.

Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi's AIMIM has also said that it will contest the central Bihar seat.