Son of the Congress’ Himachal Pradesh unit chief Pratibha Singh, Vikramaditya, has been pitted against BJP candidate and Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut in Mandi while Tewari will be contesting from Chandigarh against BJP’s Sanjay Tandon who replaced sitting MP Kirron Kher.
The other candidates were Ramji Thakor from Mahesana, Himmatsinh Patel from Ahmedabad East, Pareshbhai Dhanani from Rajkot, Naishadh Desai from Navasari, Vinod Sultanpuri from Shimla, Mohan Hembram from Keonjhar, Shrikant Kumar Jena from Balasore, Anant Prasad Sethi from Bhadrak, Anchal Das from Jajpur, Sashmita Behera from Dhenkanal, Sidharth Swarup Das from Kendrapara, Rabindra Kumar Sethy from jagatsinghpur, Sucharita Mohanty from puri and Yasir Nawa from Bhubaneswar.
Earlier, Pratibha also confirmed today that “consensus has been reached on the name of Vikramaditya Singh.
After the meeting with Himachal chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, she said party leaders have agreed that a young candidate should be fielded from the Mandi seat.
“Discussions were held on the 2-3 names that we shortlisted. It depends on the high command, on Mallikarjun Kharge, and on what names they approve. All our senior leaders believe that this time a young leader should be fielded. So, a consensus has been reached on the name of Vikramaditya Singh. The names will be finalised soon,” said Pratibha Singh, who is the incumbent MP from Mandi.
The Mandi constituency is considered a stronghold of former chief minister Virbhadra Singh’s family.
Way before the official announcement, Vikramaditya and Kangana engaged in the war of words. Slamming Kangana for her “Chhota Pappu” remark, Vikramaditya said on Thursday that he would pray to Lord Ram to give her some “good sense.”
The Congress leader further said that instead of misleading people by diverting attention, she should speak up on the real issues.
The Minister’s response comes after Ranaut, in her rally in Manali, attacked Congress leaders for their “anti-women” mindset and referred to Vikramaditya Singh as “Chhota Pappu”.
In a video message, Singh said that Kangana Ranaut is trying to mislead people and divert the issues of the state and challenged her to have a debate with him.
“We respect our elder sister Kangana Ranaut. Today she was addressing the people of Manali. Instead of speaking against Congress party and its leaders, it would have been good, if she would have taken up and talked about the issues on the biggest disaster of the century, which happened in Manali a few months ago,” Singh said.
He also attacked Ranaut, asking what had she done for the people suffering from the massive flood that hit Manali last year.
(With inputs from agencies)