Lok Sabha polls 2024: BJP’s First List Reveals Four Prominent Bhojpuri Stars as Candidates

The much-awaited first list of 195 candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections was released by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday. Among them are prominent figures like Amit Shah from Gandhinagar, Gujarat, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Varanasi. Four Bhojpuri celebrities have also been fielded by the BJP, including Pawan Singh of Asansol, West Bengal.

Manoj Tiwari from Northeast Delhi, Ravi Kishan from Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh, and Dinesh Lal Yadav, also known as Nirahua from Azamgarh, are the other three Bhojpuri actors. They are all currently serving as Members of Parliament.

1. Manoj Tiwari

Famous Manoj Tiwari, a Bhojpuri singer-actor who has served as a sitting MP from North East Delhi for two terms, will run for office again on a BJP ticket. The Congress candidate Sheila Dikshit, a former chief minister of Delhi, was soundly defeated by the BJP leader in the 2019 election. A well-known Purvanchali face of the BJP in the nation’s capital, Manoj Tiwari served as the president of the party’s Delhi branch in the past. In 2009, he unsuccessfully ran in his first Lok Sabha election as a Gorakhpur-based Samajwadi Party candidate against current Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

2. Ravi Kishan

For the second time, popular actor and well-known Bhojpuri actor Ravindra Shyamnarayan Shukla urf Ravi Kishan will run from Gorakhpur, the stronghold of Yogi Adityanath. The seat was held by the current chief minister of Uttar Pradesh until 2017, when Ravi Kishan emerged victorious in 2019. With a lead of more than 3 lakh votes, Ravi Kishan defeated SP candidate Rambhual Nishad in the 2019 election. The youngest of five siblings, his family is from Jaunpur in Kerakat, Uttar Pradesh. As a Congress candidate from Jaunpur, he ran in his first Lok Sabha election in 2014 but was unsuccessful.

3. Dinesh Lal Yadav

Renowned actor and popular Bhojpuri performer Dinesh Lal Yadav, also known as Nirahua, is currently serving as an MP from Azamgarh and is set to run again from the SP’s stronghold in the upcoming parliamentary elections. He had defeated Dharmendra Yadav of the SP in the 2022 by-elections by almost 9,000 votes. After winning the seat in 2019 and being elected as an MLA from Karhal in the 2022 UP legislative assembly elections, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav subsequently tendered his resignation from the constituency. Nirahua is a member of Ghazipur’s well-known Biraha family. He became a member of the BJP in 2017 and lost the 2019 Lok Sabha election against Akhilesh Yadav.

4. Pawan Singh

The well-known playback singer and Bhojpuri actor, best known for the hit song Lollipop Lagelu, would compete from Asansol in West Bengal. Shatrughan Sinha, a veteran actor from Bollywood and Bhojpuri who currently leads the TMC, is currently representing Asansol. Because of his amazing singing, Pawan Singh, who is from Arrah in Bihar, is known to his fans as the Power Star of the Bhojpuri Industry. The Asansol candidate has not yet been announced by the TMC. Asansol will witness an intriguing contest between the two candidates who are actually from Bihar if Shatrughan Sinha is put forward once more. Famous singer Babul Supriyo defeated TMC’s Moon Moon Sen to win this seat in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections on a BJP ticket.

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Fifty-one seats from Uttar Pradesh, twenty from Madhya Pradesh, twenty from West Bengal, fifteen from Gujarat and Rajasthan, twelve from Kerala, nine from Telangana, eleven from Assam, Chhattisgarh, and Jharkhand, two from Arunachal Pradesh, two from Uttarakhand, and one each from Goa, Tripura, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and Daman and Diu were on the BJP’s list. Additionally, up to 33 current MPs were swapped out for fresh faces.