News Brief
Pawan Singh
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has expelled Bhojpuri star Pawan Singh over his candidature against National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate Upendra Kushwaha in the Karakat Parliamentary constituency.
In a letter issued on Wednesday (22 May), BJP's Bihar unit considered Pawan Singh's candidature as an Independent against the NDA candidate as an "anti-party activity that maligns the image of the party."
Taking disciplinary action against Singh, the BJP expelled him on the order of the party's Bihar president Samrat Chaudhary, who is also the Deputy Chief Minister of the state.
Earlier, the BJP fielded Pawan Singh from Asansol in West Bengal. However, a day after receiving the ticket, Singh declined to contest from here. Subsequently, the BJP nominated S S Ahluwalia from Asansol.
Prior to that, the BJP-led NDA had already given the Karakat seat to Rashtriya Lok Morcha and its president Upendra Kushwaha was ready to contest from there.
In the Mahagathbandhan (the Congress-RJD alliance), this seat fell under the CPI (ML) quota and Raja Ram Singh Kushwaha is the INDI Alliance candidate there.
Karakat constituency was formed after the 2008 delimitation and is one among the 40 constituencies of Bihar. Upendra Kushwaha won from here in 2014, while JD(U) won two other times, in 2009 and 2019.