June 4 (Punjab Khabarnama) : Actor Kangana Ranaut, star of movies such as Queen and Tanu Weds Manu, has won from the Mandi Lok Sabha seat in Himachal Pradesh on her electoral debut by a margin of 74,755 votes, according to the Election Commission of India.
Ranaut, no stranger to controversy, went up going against Congress’ Vikramaditya Singh, the son of former Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh. Thirty-four-year-old Singh has contested two assembly elections in the past but this is his first bid for a parliamentary seat.
The Mandi Lok Sabha seat was won by Bharatiya Janata Party’s Ram Swaroop Sharma in 2014 and 2019, with a vote share of 49.97% and 68.75% respectively.
However, Sharma’s demise on March 17, 2021 necessitated the byelection and Pratibha Singh, Vikramaditya Singh’s mother, won the seat on a Congress ticket in that November. .
Ranaut has been a vocal supporter of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP for years now, but she officially joined the party earlier this year when her candidature was announced.
“My beloved Bharat and Bhartiya Janta’s own party, Bharatiya Janta party (BJP) has always had my unconditional support, today the national leadership of BJP has announced me as their Lok Sabha candidate from my birthplace Himachal Pradesh, Mandi (constituency). I abide by the high command’s decision on contesting the Lok Sabha polls. I feel honoured and elated to officially join the party. I look forward to being a worthy karyakarta and a reliable public servant. Thanks,” Ranuat had written in a social media post on March 24, after her candidature was announced.
Ranaut’s great-grandfather, Sarju Singh Ranaut, was an MLA. Her mother, Asha Ranaut, retired as a schoolteacher from Mandi, and her father, Amardeep Ranaut, is a businessman.
Asha Ranaut had once mentioned that the family initially supported the Congress but shifted allegiance to the BJP due to Kangana’s influence.
While campaigning in Mandi, which went to the polls in the seventh and last phase of Lok Sabha elections on June 1, Ranaut sparked a social media row . She claimed that India had become truly independent only in 2014 and expressed her desire for India to become a ‘Hindu Rashtra’.
The Lok Sabha polls for 543 seats were held in seven phases starting from April 19, while the last phase was held on June 1. The Bharatiya Janata Party is seeking a rare third term at the Centre with Narendra Modi as Prime Minister.
