Kangana among three in race for BJP’s Mandi Lok Sabha ticket

Abhinav Vashisht

Kullu, March 15

There are many aspirants for the BJP ticket from the Mandi parliamentary seat for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, but the party has so far not revealed anything regarding the candidate.

How segment has voted in past

• At present, HPCC chief Pratibha Singh is the MP from Mandi and she had won the byelections in 2021 by defeating BJP candidate Khushal Thakur by a margin of 7,490 votes
• The byelections were held following the death of BJP’s Ram Swaroop Sharma, who had won in 2019 General Election by defeating Congress candidate Aashray Sharma
• Ram Swaroop Sharma had won the 2014 elections by defeating Pratibha Singh by a margin of 39,856 votes. He had been the party candidate from Mandi for six times and had secured the seat thrice

The names of Brig Khushal Thakur (retd), actress Kangana Ranaut and former MP Maheshwar Singh are doing the rounds, but even the office bearers of the party are unaware about the inclination of the party high command. It is unlikely that the party will bet on former Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur as it will not want to reduce the strength in the Assembly by giving tickets to sitting MLAs.

At present, HPCC chief Pratibha Singh is the MP from Mandi and she had won the byelections in 2021 by defeating BJP candidate Khushal Thakur by a margin of 7,490 votes. The byelections were held following the death of BJP’s Ram Swaroop Sharma, who had won in 2019 General Election by defeating Congress candidate Aashray Sharma, grandson of former Union Telecommunication Minister Sukh Ram, by a margin of 4,05,459 votes. Ram Swaroop Sharma had won the 2014 elections by defeating Pratibha Singh by a margin of 39,856 votes.

Despite BJP governments in the state and at the Centre in 2021, BJP candidate Khushal Thakur was unable to register a victory. The then Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur campaigned intensively for Khushal Thakur, but the cards did not turn out in favour of the BJP.

Actress Kangana Ranaut, hailing from Mandi district, has also been maintaining contacts with all the big leaders of the BJP, including the Prime Minister. In December last year, she had a meeting with BJP national president Jagat Prakash Nadda for over one hour in Kullu, raising speculations of her being interested in contesting the elections from the Mandi parliamentary seat. However, sources revealed that so far even the local BJP leaders were not content on Kangana’s candidature.

BJP stalwart Maheshwar Singh has also wished to contest the Lok Sabha elections and has met the senior party leaders.

He had been the party candidate from Mandi for six times and had secured the seat thrice. Maheshwar Singh was first given the ticket from Kullu Assembly constituency and after four days it was snatched from him as he was not able to placate his son Hiteshwar, who contested as an independent candidate from Banjar after being denied the BJP ticket.

However, Maheshwar Singh had turned 75 years old and this might not run in his favour to get the ticket as per the party’s guidelines on age. It will be interesting to see whether BJP opts for its senior leaders or gives ticket to a new face.