Kangana Ranaut, Vikramaditya Singh

BJP’s ‘star’ candidate Kangana Ranaut won from Himachal Pradesh’s Mandi seat against Vikramaditya Singh of Congress.

In a unique electoral showdown in Himachal Pradesh’s Mandi parliamentary constituency, the battleground shifted between “royalty” and “stardom”, as Congress legislator Vikramaditya Singh, the scion of the erstwhile royal family, challenged Hindi film actor, Kangana Ranaut. 

Pratibha Singh a three-time MP and  mother of Vikramaditya who belongs to the erstwhile royal family of Keonthal state had declined to re-enter the fray, saying senior party leaders had proposed Vikramaditya’s name as they were of the opinion that “he’s young, energetic and a good orator with influence over the youth and would be a good competitor for Kangana”.

Two-time legislator Vikramaditya, 35, who describes Kangana, 37, as his “badi behan” (elder sister), was the public works minister in the state government led by Sukhvinder Sukhu, while Kangana was making her political debut.

Mandi is the home district of BJP leader Jai Ram Thakur, the first Himachal chief minister from Mandi. In most of the election meetings and during campaigning, he was accompanying Kangana.

Thakur contested the assembly election in 1998 and since then, consecutively won all the six assembly elections with a huge margin. However, he lost the Mandi parliamentary bye-poll to Virbhadra Singh’s wife Pratibha Singh by 1.36 lakh votes in 2013. Earlier, the seat was represented by her husband, who resigned following his election to the state assembly in December 2012.

Mandi is also the lone seat where the Communist Party of India (Marxist) was also in the fray.

Kangana belongs to Bhambla village near Hamirpur town, some 200 km from the state capital Shimla. She owns a cottage in the picturesque tourist resort Manali, which is part of the Mandi parliamentary constituency.

In his election meetings, Thakur, whose focus was to ensure win of the Mandi seat, was often quoted as saying, “Kangana is the daughter of Mandi, which is called Chhoti Kashi. She has brought glory to Himachal and Mandi in the film industry.”

For Thakur, who rose from the ranks and is known for his humble and low-profile stature, it was a do-or-die battle to win the Mandi seat and that too with the highest margin in the state.

Besides the Mandi seat, which includes Kullu, Mandi and some areas of Chamba and Shimla districts, besides the tribal-dominated Kinnaur and Lahaul and Spiti, the other three constituencies in the state are Shimla (reserved), Kangra and Hamirpur.

Historically, the Mandi constituency has favoured scions of erstwhile princely states, electing “royals” in 13 out of 19 elections, including two bye-polls since 1952.

With the electorate, traditionally in the Lok Sabha polls, favouring the party at the helm in the state, these elections were seen as a referendum on Himachal Pradesh’s 16-month-old Congress government.

(With inputs from syndicated feed)