Kangana Ranaut’s fan following, infighting in Congress a challenge for Vikramaditya Singh

Tribune News Service

Dipender Manta

Mandi, April 14

The Mandi Lok Sabha election will be a litmus test of the popularity of Public Works Department Minister Vikramaditya Singh, who is the Congress candidate against BJP nominee Kangana Ranaut. Vikramaditya is the son of former six-term Chief Minister late Virbhadra Singh and Congress president Pratibha Singh, who is also sitting Mandi MP.

Kangana is already campaigning in the Mandi constituency while the Congress declared Vikramaditya’s candidature yesterday.

Sukhu, Sukh Ram groups may play spoilsport

• A group of Congress workers is the staunch supporters of Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu while the other group owes allegiance to the Virbhadra family
• Due to bitter relations between the Chief Minister and the Virbhadra family, the supporters of both groups are always on a lookout for an opportunity to dominate the other
• Vikramaditya will have to be wary of backstabbing in the Congress
• The family of former Union Telecom Minister late Pandit Sukh Ram is also an opponent of the Virbhadra family
• Sukh Ram’s family also enjoys considerable influence in some parts of the Mandi parliamentary constituency and it is likely to do everything possible to defeat Vikramaditya

Vikramaditya faces several challenges, especially infighting in the Congress, in the Mandi Lok Sabha constituency. A group of Congress workers is the staunch supporters of Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu while the other group owes allegiance to the Virbhadra family. Due to bitter relations between the Chief Minister and the Virbhadra family, the supporters of both groups are always on a lookout for an opportunity to dominate the other. Vikramaditya will have to be wary of backstabbing in the Congress.

Due to backstabbing in the party, two prominent Congress leaders Kaul Singh Thakur and Prakash Chaudhary had lost the 2022 Assembly elections by a small margin of votes in Mandi district.

The family of former Union Telecom Minister late Pandit Sukh Ram is also an opponent of the Virbhadra family. Sukh Ram’s family also enjoys considerable influence in some parts of the Mandi parliamentary constituency and it is likely do everything possible to defeat Vikramaditya. Anil Sharma, son of Pandit Sukh Ram, is the incumbent BJP legislator from the Mandi (Sadar) Assembly constituency.

Besides infighting in the Congress in Mandi, Kangana’s considerable fan following in the constituency is another challenge for Vikramaditya. Along with Kangana, former Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur is also spearheading the election campaign in Mandi, his home district where he exercises considerable influence. He is the sitting MLA from the Seraj constituency. The Mandi parliamentary constituency comprises 17 Assembly seats of Mandi, Kullu, Lahaul and Spiti, Chamba, Kinnaur and Shimla districts.

The BJP is banking on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity and achievements to garner votes for Kangana. It is urging voters to support Kangana so that Modi gets another chance to serve the nation as Prime Minister. It is likely that big BJP leaders such as the Prime Minister will campaign for Kangana in the coming days.

The election results on June 4 will be the reflection of Vikramaditya’s popularity in the constituency that his father had represented. His mother Pratibha is the sitting MP from Mandi.

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