Bollywood actress and politician Kangana Ranaut, contesting as a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate from the Mandi seat in the Lok Sabha elections 2024, has expressed firm belief in the victory of the saffron party in the impending polls. “Bhagwa hi lehraya tha, Bhagwa hi lehrayega (there was a saffron wave, there will be a saffron wave),” the actor-turned-politician asserted in an interview with NDTV.
Ranaut on Tuesday campaigned for her party colleague Gajendra Singh Shekhawat in Rajasthan’s Jodhpur. “The energy and excitement of people can be seen, we can see their love for the BJP,” she said.
Kangana Ranaut’s nomination from her hometown Mandi has added a layer of intrigue to the electoral contest for a constituency that has been a traditional Congress stronghold. To challenge the BJP, Congress has fielded the son of long-time late former chief minister Virbhadra Singh, Vikramaditya Singh from the constituency. The Mandi constituency is considered a bastion of the Virbhadra family. The seat, currently held by Pratibha Devi Singh, the late leader’s widow, saw an Assembly bye-election in 2021 following the demise of BJP MP Ram Swaroop Sharma.
Lok Sabha election will be held on June 1 in Himachal Pradesh. Also, polling will simultaneously be held for six Assembly seats that fell vacant following the disqualification of six dissident Congress MLAs. The BJP, which bagged all four seats in Himachal in 2019, is bidding for an encore this year.
Last week, Pratibha Singh who is the Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee Chief scheduled a day-long meeting in Shimla to devise the strategies for Mandi Constituency. She expressed hope that the Congress candidate from Mandi will also win the Lok Sabha elections.
“It’s good that she (Kangana Ranaut) is visiting places for her campaign, it is her duty and responsibility as the BJP has given her the ticket. We don’t need to be bothered by that, we already have visited those places. We don’t need to give our introduction to the people. They know us and have always been with us. I hope this time also, they will vote for our candidates and send them to the Parliament,” Singh said.