A day after the BJP named singer-actor Pawan Singh as its candidate for the Asansol Lok Sabha seat, the Bhojpuri star refused the offer.
In a post on X, Singh expressed gratitude to the BJP leadership for showing faith in him but said he will not be able to contest the elections from Asansol due to some reason.
This comes as a setback to the saffron party which released its first list of 195 candidates on Saturday.
Besides Pawan Singh, BJP's first list features three other Bhojpuri stars - Manoj Tiwari, Ravi Kishan and Dinesh Lal Yadav alias Nirahua.
Singer-actor Tiwari, two-term MP from East Delhi will contest the seat for the third time.
Actor-turned-politician Ravi Kishan has been fielded from the Gorakhpur seat again, while Azamgarh MP Nirahua will also fight to retain his seat.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will contest from Varanasi for a third time. Thirty-four Union ministers, including heavyweights like Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh will contest from their current Gandhinagar and Lucknow seats respectively.
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