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Himachal Pradesh's Mandi Lok Sabha seat is witnessing a nail-biting contest in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls as the BJP has fielded popular actress Kangana Ranaut. However, Congress has fielded state MLA Vikramaditya Singh as Mandi LS seat is considered a pocket borough of his family, although, most of the Assembly seats lying in Mandi LS seat where won by the BJP in the 2022 state polls in spite of Saffron party receiving a drubbing in that election.
Notably, Congress has been the most successful party in Mandi as it has won over 50% of all the Parliamentary elections from here since 1952. Vikramaditya's father and ex-Himachal CM Virbhadra Singh has represented the Mandi LS seat three times. Virbhadra's wife Pratibha Singh and Sukh Ram have also represented Mandi on three occasions.
In 2019 LS polls, Congress lost the Mandi LS seat by a margin of over 4 lakh votes and the Grand Old Party received a big setback from Himachal as it wasn't able to garner even 30% of the total votes polled in the state during that election. However, a bypoll was held on Mandi LS seat in 2021 in which Congress bagged the seat, although by a slender margin of less than 10,000 votes, as it fielded Pratibha Singh. Experts believe that the death of Virbhadra Singh in the months preceding the bypoll gave the advantage of the sympathy factor to his wife Pratibha.
There has been a war of words between Vikramaditya and Kangana in the run-up to the polls as the former has accused the Tanu Weds Manu actress of "disrespecting" the Sanatan Dharma after rumours of her consuming beef meat went viral on social media. However, the state unit of the BJP has filed a complaint against the Congress with the Election Commission of India against the Congress for "assassinating" Kangana's character