Lok Sabha Elections 2024 | People have chosen my family with their precious votes: Vikramaditya Singh tells Kangana

Shimla: People have chosen my family by giving their precious votes, Congress' Mandi candidate Vikramaditya Singh said on Sunday as he came down heavily on his BJP rival Kangana Ranaut for accusing his family of "sticking" to the chair for a long time.

Addressing a rally in Kullu, Vikramaditya Singh, son of six-time chief minister Virbhadra Singh said, "The chair of the chief minister was given to his family by 70 lakh people of Himachal Pradesh who expressed their faith in his father."

"By making such remarks, she (Ranaut) is insulting the people of Himachal," Singh said, adding that only ten days are left for the Bollywood actor to pack up and return to Mumbai.

Taking a dig at her Congress rival, Ranaut had on Friday said his family has been sticking to power for long.

"Tikkaji (Singh) is the face of the dynastic politics of the Congress, whereas the BJP is a party of commoners where a tea seller (Modi) becomes the prime minister and the son of a mason (Thakur) becomes a chief minister, she had said."

During Sunday's rally, Singh also said that Ranaut tried to belittle the contribution of the country's former prime ministers including Atal Bihari Vajpayee and the state's former chief ministers with her remark about India getting Independence in 2014 only after Narendra Modi was voted to power.

Singh added that Ranaut had no political vision apart from praising the current prime minister.

Earlier, speaking to reporters after a public meeting in Manali, Singh said a drop has been noticed in the inflow of tourists to Kullu district after the summers and if elected as an MP, he will focus on promoting eco-tourism in the area.

Therefore, a plan has been developed to promote eco-tourism in the area in order to maintain tourist footfall throughout the year, the state minister added.

Hitting out at Ranaut, Singh said, "I request former chief minister Jai Ram Thakur to and teach her so that she can know what work has been done in Mandi by the Congress-led government at the Centre."

In one of her election rallies, Ranaut had asked what Singh's family did for Mandi despite representing the constituency several times in the Parliament.

The Congress leader said the scheme of 24-hour drinking water supply in Kullu and Manali, establishment of IIT Mandi and construction of Medical College in Ner Chowk were done during the Congress regime.

"Apart from this, there are many such schemes about which Kangana Ranaut knows nothing. She just keeps making baseless statements and has no idea about the developmental works undertaken at the grassroots level," the Himachal Pradesh PWD minister added.

Vikramaditya Singh, the two-time MLA from the Shimla (rural) Assembly segment, is the titular king of the erstwhile princely state of Bushahr.

He is the son of Mandi sitting MP Pratibha Singh, who is representing the constituency for the third time in the parliament. His father Virbhadra Singh was also a three-time MP form the same seat.

The Mandi parliamentary seat, which goes to polls on June 1 in the last phase of the Lok Sabha elections, is spread over six districts comprises 17 assembly segments, eight of which are reserved for Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled castes.