Mandi: In the battle between “royalty” and “reel”, Bollywood’s ‘queen’, Kangana Ranaut, of the BJP, on Tuesday secured a win against Congress legislator Vikramaditya Singh, the scion of the erstwhile royal family, with a margin of 74,755 votes in the Mandi parliamentary constituency. She polled 5,37,022 votes, while her nearest rival Vikramaditya got 4,62,267 votes, said the Election Commission of India. There were 10 candidates in the fray. There were 5,645 NOTA (none of the above) votes.
After winning the seat, she expressed gratitude to Leader of Opposition Jai Ram Thakur for ensuring her win.
“We fought this election in the name of Narendra Modi. It is the result of his credibility and his guarantee and the faith of people in him that we are going to form the government for the third time,” she told the media.
Expressing gratitude to the people, Congress candidate Vikramaditya said, “I thank the public of Mandi who voted for me in large numbers. I congratulate BJP candidate Kangana Ranaut for winning the Mandi Lok Sabha seat.
“The arrival of PM Modi, Yogi Adityanath and Nitin Gadkari had an impact on the polls. A clear-cut mandate (Congress winning four Assembly bypoll seats) has been given by the people of Himachal Pradesh against attempts to disrupt the Congress government by BJP. “The factor of PM Modi did not work in the nation. INDIA bloc has performed very well.”
The sprawling Mandi constituency, one of the toughest and covering almost two-thirds of the state, witnessed the clash of heritage and stardom.
Previously, this seat was represented by Pratibha Singh, the mother of Vikramaditya who belongs to the erstwhile royal family of Keonthal state. She’s a three-time MP from Mandi. She 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 will be a good competitor for Kangana”. (IANS)
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