As the voting in the seventh and last phase of the 2024 Lok Sabha election began on Saturday, Himachal Pradesh Congress president Pratibha Singh said it is “difficult” for the BJP to even cross 200 seats.
The majority mark in the 543-member Lok Sabha is 272.
“I am hopeful that people in large numbers are going to vote for the Congress party as they want change in the central government. It is difficult for them (BJP) to cross even 200 seats,” Pratibha Singh told ANI.
Earlier in the day she and her son Vikramaditya Singh, who is the Congress candidate from Mandi Lok Sabha seat, offered prayers at Shani Mandir in Rampur before casting their votes.
Kangana Ranaut of the BJP will face Vikramaditya Singh in the constituency.
In an interview with ANI, Vikramaditya enquired as to whether Kangana went to Mandi during a time of natural disaster.
“I want to ask Kangana Ranaut that when Mandi was affected by a natural calamity and there was a loss of crores of rupees, it was Mandi MP Pratibha Singh who met the people there and carried out an inspection…Did Kangana Ranaut come to meet the people (in Mandi)?” Vikramaditya said.
Meanwhile, exuding confidence in the BJP sweeping all four seats in Himachal Pradesh, Kangana Ranaut said that there is a complete “Modi wave” in Himachal.
Ranaut on Saturday arrived at a polling booth in Mandi to cast her vote in the seventh phase of the Lok Sabha elections.
Urging voters to cast their vote, Kangana said, “I appeal to everyone to exercise their right to vote in this festival of democracy. There has been so much bloodshed so that we can exercise this right”.
“There is a complete Modi wave in Himachal Pradesh. Our Prime Minister has conducted almost 200 rallies, gave atleast 80-90 interviews in just two months,” she added.
Exuding confidence in BJP’s “400 paar” slogan for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Kangana said, “We are soldiers of PM Modi, and will win all four seats in Himachal Pradesh”.
Hitting back at the opposition for criticising PM Modi for performing meditation in Kanyakumari, Kangana said “Meditation is not new for the Prime Minister. Even when he was not a politician he used to meditate. Now these people have a problem with that too”.
There will be a high-profile struggle in the Mandi constituency as actor Kangana Ranaut, who is entering politics for the first time, hopes to unseat the Congress party.
Since the Mandi constituency is seen as a stronghold of the Virbhadra family, it is symbolic for the Congress. Pratibha Devi Singh, the widow of late CM Virbhadra Singh, is the current occupant of the seat. In the by-election held after the death of then-BJP MP Ram Swaroop Sharma, she took the seat for the Congress.
With two well-known figures entering the race, the Congress has declared Vikramaditya Singh, son of Himachal Pradesh Minister and Virbhadra Singh, as the party’s candidate for the seat in the 2024 Lok Sabha election.
In addition to polling in six assemly seats in the state, the four Lok Sabha constituencies of Himachal Pradesh—Kangra, Mandi, Hamirpur, and Shimla—are voting in the seventh and final phase of the elections today.
There are 904 contenders competing in the last round of voting. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Ravi Shankar Prasad, Nishikant Dubey, and Ravneet Singh Bittu, leaders of the Congress Manish Tewari, Charanjit Singh Channi, leader of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), Harsimrat Kaur Badal, and leader of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Misa Bharti, are among the well-known contenders in this phase of the race.
