New Delhi: The Congress has set the stage for a high profile contest in the Mandi constituency of Himachal Pradesh by fielding the young state minister Vikramidyta Singh against cine star Kangana Ranaut of the BJP. Singh is the son of five-term Congress Chief Minister late Virbhadra Singh and sitting MP-cum PCC chief Pratibha Singh. Mandi is long considered a stronghold of the Virbhadra Singh family and the candidature of Vikramaditya advertised the resolve to take on Kangana Ranut who is making her political debut from the BJP side in his home pitch.
The Congress also fielded Maniesh Tewari from Chandigarh by denying renomination to local leader and union minister Pawan Bansal, who lost last elections from there. Tewari, now the sitting MP Anandpur Sahib, has been locked in a race with Bansal for the Chandigarh seat.
Of the 16 more Lok Sabha candidates the Congress announced on Saturday night, Shimla-SC seat went to Vinod Sultanpuri while among the nine candidates from Odisha are Shrikant Kumar Jena (Balasore), Siddharth Swaroop Das (kendrapara), Sucharita Mohanty (Puri) and Yasir Nawaz (Bhupaneswar). Of the four fresh candidates announced from Gijarat included Pareshbhai Dhanani (Rajkot) and Himmatsinh Patel (Ahmedabad East).
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