Mandi’s ‘king’ and ‘queen’ spar for supremacy with jibes and insults

Walking out of an election gathering on a hot May afternoon in Takoli village of Himachal Pradesh’s Mandi district, Krishna Vaidya is all smiles. “I had seen her in movies but never in real life. Today, my wish came true,” gushes Vaidya, who is in her late 50s and resides in a nearby village. Vaidya is not alone.At almost all her political gatherings, actor Kangana Ranaut, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate for Mandi parliamentary constituency, gets surrounded by fans who come in droves, pulled by her Bollywood star image.While Kangana, a political greenhorn, is using Prime Minister Narendra Modi and movie magic to win the hearts of voters in Mandi, her bête noire and scion of the erstwhile Bushahr princely state, Congress candidate Vikramaditya Singh, is being helped by his royal lineage.For Vikramaditya, son of six-time Himachal Pradesh chief minister late Virbhadra Singh and Congress state president Pratibha Singh, Mandi Lok Sabha seat is familiar territory given that his parents have represented it three times each.When the names of candidates were announced, it was billed as the battle between ‘king’ and ‘queen’, the latter reference being to a hit Kangana-starrer. The contest though has turned into the ugliest political duel ever fought in the mountains of Himachal. medium110539624The first salvo was fired by the Congress. In March, its leader Supriya Shrinate published a sexist post on social media with derogatory remarks against Kangana. Thereafter, it’s been a no-holds-barred slugfest.If Kangana has called Vikramaditya “Chhota Pappu”, a “spoiled shehzada”, “someone who doesn’t respect women” in her election rallies, the latter’s jibes at the actor include comedian”, “monsoon frog”, “imported leader” etc.Mandi is the largest parliamentary constituency in Himachal with 17 assembly segments that cover six of the state’s 12 districts from the tribal belts of Bharmour and Lahaul-Spiti to Kullu, Manali, Mandi, Kinnaur and Shimla.Although Kangana hails from Bhambla village in Mandi district, the Congress has been portraying her as an outsider who did not stand with the people during the havoc wreaked by monsoon last year. But that doesn’t seem to perturb Kangana as she has also made little mention of any local issues in her election meetings and is solely banking on Modi’s popularity. The confidence also stems from the fact that the BJP won nine of the 10 seats in Mandi district in the 2022 assembly election.“Kangana is the daughter of Mandi. She’s a Mandial and belongs to this place. Moreover, Modi himself wanted her to contest elections from our constituency,” says Sanjay Kapoor, a shopkeeper in Mandi town. medium110539638Using local dialect ‘Mandiali’ in her speeches, Kangana seems to have struck a chord with the voters in the district. But in the upper reaches of Kullu, Kinnaur, Shimla and Chamba, it’s Vikramaditya who seems to have an upper hand.“All my life, I have voted for Raja sahib (Virbhadra Singh) and later Rani sahiba (Pratibha Singh) and now it’s their son Vikramaditya, the Tikka sahib. You see, Raja family knows and understands this place, the people and the issues so well. They deserve to be elected as our leaders,” says Mahal Chand Negi, 65, a resident of Chhatenseri village near Manali populated by people from Kinnaur district.While promising to solve long-pending issues faced by Mandi voters, Vikramaditya has also been making it a point to mention his father’s legacy and ‘Devniti’ — a religious code of the deities followed in the villages of the state, especially in areas of upper Himachal.“It’s our responsibility to strengthen Devniti. Rest assured, I will extend my support to all the religious and Devniti functions the way my father Raja Virbhadra Singh used to,” Vikramaditya told a cheering crowd at a recent election gathering in Sundernagar in Mandi.As June 1, the polling day in Himachal Pradesh, draws closer and the political temperature rises, both Kangana and Vikramaditya sweat it out throughout the length and breadth of Mandi constituency to win over the electorate. At stake is not only their reputations but also the shape of their future.