In a Social Media Update, KTR Criticizes BJP Candidates’ Historical Misconceptions on India’s First Prime Minister

5 April 2024

New Delhi: KT Rama Rao, the working president of Bharat Rashtriya Samithi (BRS), took a swipe at Kangana Ranaut, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) candidate from Himachal Pradesh’s Mandi seat for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, after she referred to freedom fighter Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose as “India’s first Prime Minister”. In a social media post, KTR remarked, “One BJP candidate from the North claims Subhash Chandra Bose was our first PM!! And another BJP leader from the South asserts Mahatma Gandhi was our PM!! Where did all these people receive their education?”

During a television interview, Kangana Ranaut, the actor-turned-politician, questioned, “Tell me one thing, when we gained independence, where did India’s first PM Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose vanish?”

Supriya Shrinate, a Congress leader, also shared Kangana Ranaut’s statement and commented, “Don’t underestimate her – she will soon join the ranks of BJP leaders”.

Kangana Ranaut had previously faced widespread criticism when she asserted that India truly achieved independence after Narendra Modi was elected as the prime minister in 2014.

Kangana Ranaut was named as one of the 111 candidates for the Lok Sabha elections by the BJP on March 24. In an Instagram post, Ranaut, who has been a vocal supporter of the BJP and PM Modi, expressed her gratitude for being nominated as the BJP’s Lok Sabha candidate from her birthplace Himachal Pradesh, Mandi (constituency).

Voting in Himachal Pradesh is scheduled to take place in a single phase on June 1 for four seats.

The Mandi Lok Sabha constituency has historically been a battleground for erstwhile royal families, with their scions winning 13 out of the 19 elections, including two by-elections, held for the seat.

Between 2009 and 2021, there were three general elections and two by-elections for the Mandi seat. Congress has had a significant presence in these elections, emerging victorious three times.

In the 2009 general elections, Virbhadra Singh, and in the by-elections of 2013 and 2021, Congress candidate Pratibha Singh, were elected as the Members of Parliament from the Mandi seat.

Ram Swaroop Sharma was elected as a Member of Parliament in both the 2014 and 2019 parliamentary elections, which were won by the Bharatiya Janata Party. But Ram Swaroop Sharma tragically committed suicide in 2021. Pratibha Singh of the Congress subsequently won this seat in the 2021 by-elections. At present, the BJP is in control of three of the four Lok Sabha seats.