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After being named BJP candidate for Asansol Lok Sabha, Singh posted on X on Saturday evening, “Sheersh netrativa ko dil se dhanyawad (Heartfelt thanks to top leadership).
The words he penned in Hindi and published on X on Sunday afternoon translate to, “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’s floor-scorching number, Lollipop Laagelu (You look like a lollipop), has garnered over 225 million views on YouTube and was once also a wildly popular ringtone.
While his withdrawal has left the party red-faced, BJP will take heart from the fact that the Big Three of the Bhojpuri entertainment world — Manoj Tiwary (North-East Delhi), Ravi Kishan (Gorakhpur) and Dinesh Lal Yadav ‘Nirahua’ (Azamgarh) – remain firmly in the saffron saddle.
All were BJP MPs in the just-concluded 17th Lok Sabha and contesting again from the same seat. Incidentally, Tiwary is the lone BJP MP from Delhi to have retained his ticket.
Had he contested, Pawan Singh — the film star of Pratigya, Loha Pahalwan and Saiyaan Superstar — could have provided a lip smacking face-off with Bollywood’s biggest star from Bihar, Shatrughan Sinha, who had bagged the seat on a TMC ticket in a 2022 bypoll.
In the past, however, Bhojpuri stars haven’t fared well in their debut. Tiwary, Kishan, Nirahua – none were successful in their first attempt to get into the Lower House.
Kishan, who is currently all over the big screen with (Laaptaa Ladies) and OTT (Maamla Legal Hai), ended up a lowly sixth as a Congress candidate from Jaunpur in 2014. Tiwary came third in Gorakhpur in 2009 on a Samajwadi Party ticket. Nirahua went down to SP supremo Akhilesh Yadav in Azamgarh, 2019.
All three turned failure to success in their second attempt. Tiwary won in 2014 and again in 2019. Kishan triumphed in 2019. Nirahua prevailed in a bypoll in 2022.
Kunal Singh, another major Bhojpuri film star of the 1980s, has also fought the Lok Sabha polls. In 2014, the hero of the blockbuster, Ganga Kinare Mora Gaon (1983), contested on a Congress ticket against Shatrughan Sinha, who was representing BJP then, for the Patna Sahib seat. Singh lost. Sinha, once a major Bollywood star, also played the title role in the Bhojpuri hit, Bihari Babu.