BJP just put out first list of 195 candidates for the Lok Sabha polls, and candidates have already started to drop out.

The first shocker came from the Asansol candidate Pawan Singh, who declared on X in the afternoon, “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…”

The choice of the Bhojpuri singer, originally from Arah in Bihar, who has been known for borderline lewd references to Bengali women in his songs had been panned. Singh himself had appeared pleased with the choice and posted several tweets expressing delight at being asked to run on the BJP ticket. Veteran actor and TMC MP Shatrughan Sinha is the sitting MP from Asansol. Babul Supriyo, another singer-turned-politician, who switched parties, was the MP from here before Sinha.

Before Pawan Singh declared that he was rejecting the party ticket, the BJP’s IT cell chief Amit Malviya had defended Pawan Singh’s candidature, asking opposition leaders to “stop pontificating. Respect those who work for a living.”

BJP has 18 of the 42 MP seats from West Bengal. They had declared 20 names in their first list.

From Gujarat too, Nitin Patel, once a contender for the chief minister’s post, former Deputy Chief Minister of Gujarat and BJP leader Nitin Patel has also decided to abandon the fray as candidate from Mehsana seat.

Patel served as the Deputy Chief Minister of Gujarat from August 2016 to September 2021 under former Chief Minister Vijay Rupani. The list for Gujarat featured 15 of 26 candidates from Gujarat. BJP has won all seats from here in the past two general elections.

BJP has yet to declare names from states where it hopes it will be able to forge an alliance. As per the data released by the BJP, 102 of the candidates are from OBC, SC and ST communities. This implies that 93 of the 195 candidates, or 48% of the list issued by the BJP, are from the upper castes.