Kangana Ranaut’s fight will be with ‘young face’ Vikramaditya, says Pratibha Singh
Himachal Pradesh Congress chief Pratibha Singh on Saturday said the Congress has finalised her son Vikramaditya Singh’s name for the Mandi Lok Sabha election as the party was of the opinion that a young face should put up the fight this time.
If his name is finalised, Vikramaditya will take on BJP’s Kangana Ranaut. While the duo has already started a war of words, Vikramaditya recently put the Congress government in jeopardy as he announced his resignation followed by a crisis in Himachal Pradesh. He later withdrew his resignation and was apparently placated by the Congress leadership.
“We discussed the names that we shortlisted. Mallikarjun Kharge and Sonia Gandhi were also present. Some names are final and some names will be discussed again. From Mandi, Vikramaditya’s name has been made final as everyone was in favour of a young face from Mandi,” Pratibha Singh said to news agency ANI. The official announcement has not yet been made by the party.
On Kangana Ranaut’s comments on Congress and Vikramaditya, Pratibha said, “We don’t need to comment on what she (Kangana Ranaut) says. She can say what she has to say from her party side. We are here to speak about what we did in Mandi for years. It is a very safe seat for us. We won this in difficult times,” Pratibha said.
Who is Vikramaditya Singh?
35-year-old Vikramaditya Singh is a cabinet minister in Himachal Pradesh.
Son of Pratibha Singh and former CM Virbhadra Singh, Vikramaditya became the titular kind of the erstwhile princely state of Bushahr (town in Shimla) after his father’s death.
Vikramaditya Singh holds a master’s degree in History from Delhi’s St Stephen’s College.
He joined politics in 2013 and won his first election in 2017 — from Shimla Rural.
Vikramaditya was the only Congress MLA who attended the Ram Temple inauguration ceremony in Ayodhya defying party line.
In February, Vikramaditya announced his resignation and speculations were rife that he was going to join the BJP along with a few rebel MLAs — which could have brought down the Congress government. This happened after the Congress lost the Rajya Sabha elections owing to cross-voting.
Vikramaditya said chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu was suppressing the MLAs.
The crisis was managed with the intervention of the top leadership and Vikramaditya withdrew his resignation and stayed with the party.