Behind Kangana Ranaut’s victory over the Congress’s Vikramaditya Singh by 74,755 votes from Mandi Lok Sabha in Himachal Pradesh was a numbers game that the BJP executed with aplomb. In the high-stakes battle, the Bollywood actress’s fate was decided by the Assembly segments in the lower reaches of the mountainous state, which are mostly held by BJP MLAs. It is from these areas that she got the biggest leads. From the Seraj Assembly segment of former BJP Chief Minister Jairam Thakur, Ranaut fetched 40,868 votes, while Singh fetched 26,170 votes, a lead of 14,698, which is also the exact lead she got from Sundernagar Assembly, which is represented by BJP MLA Rakesh Jamwal. Overall Ranaut got 5,37,022 votes out of a total 10,18,253, against Singh, who got only 4,62,267 votes. Even in Assembly segments like Kullu and Manali, which are represented by Congress MLAs Surinder Singh Thakur and Bhuvaneshwar Gaur, respectively, Ranaut scored big, receiving 36,529 votes from Kullu against Singh’s 26,782, and 28,735 from Manali, against Singh’s 12,667. Out of the 17 Assembly segments under Mandi Lok Sabha, Singh managed leads from only four — Lahaul & Spiti, Karsog, Rampur and Kinnaur. Even among these, Karsog is the only segment held by the BJP that Singh managed to turn in his favour. While Rampur and Kinnaur are currently held by the Congress, Lahaul & Spiti was retained by the party at the simultaneous bypolls, after 2022 Congress winner, Ravi Thakur, had switched over to the BJP. Against an opponent whose sole winning mantra, apart from being a Himachal native who has made it big in Bollywood was PM Modi’s popularity, and Hindutva,. the loss of Singh, a royal family scion from Mandi, in the high-stakes Lok Sabha seat battle has raised many questions. One of the primary ones would be about the weak booth management on the ground — such as maintaining records of supporters and workers and reaching out to all.
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