ShimlaJul 11, 2025 19:21 IST
First published on: Jul 11, 2025 at 19:21 IST
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Actor-turned-BJP MP Kangana Ranaut’s brief, one-day visit to cloudburst-affected areas of her parliamentary constituency of Mandi earlier this week has left a section of the state BJP in an uncomfortable position, providing fresh ammunition to the Congress.
Ranaut has been accused of being an absent MP, with Congress leaders saying she was not bothered about the problems in the flood-hit region. On July 6, Ranaut stated that relief and restoration work was the responsibility of the Congress-led state government. “As an MP, I can only apprise the prime minister and the home minister of the situation and request central assistance,” she said. The following day, she added that she neither had agencies nor a Cabinet and that it was not her assignment.
This drew a swift response from the Congress and state ministers, among them Jagat Singh Negi, the Revenue, Horticulture and Tribal Affairs Minister. Taking a dig at Ranaut, he said politics was not a “cup of tea for Bollywood actresses” such as Ranaut, and she should resign if she was struggling to discharge her duties.
State Congress president Pratibha Singh said Mandi was the biggest parliamentary constituency in the state and it was “unfortunate that an MP representing two-thirds of Himachal is saying that she has no funds, agencies or a Cabinet”. Singh said such statements showed that Ranaut was “not taking her work seriously”.
While state BJP president Rajiv Bindal defended Ranaut, a section of the leadership and local unit workers flagged her “disconnect” from party affairs. So far, Ranaut’s fellow BJP MPs Anurag Thakur (parliamentarian from Hamirpur), Suresh Kashyap (Shimla), and Rajeev Bhardwaj (Kangra) have sent hundreds of relief kits from their constituencies to Mandi.
“There are many issues that people within the party are hesitant to speak about publicly. These matters are being observed closely. It has only been a year since she was elected. The high command and senior leadership are carefully tracking her actions and responses,” said a senior state BJP working committee member.
The BJP functionary added, “She remains largely disconnected from party affairs. Her absence from key party events is nothing new. For instance, on July 2, the day Dr Bindal was appointed state party president in the presence of Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh in Shimla, all BJP MPs from the state, both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, were present. Kangana was absent. Even the day before, during the nomination and voting process for the party president at the Shimla headquarters, she was expected to be there, but she didn’t turn up.”
A BJP leader from Mandi said it seemed that the actor was still “struggling to strike a balance between her two professions”. “Her actions reflect a lack of political maturity. For example, after the recent cloudbursts, she called former Chief Minister and Leader of Opposition Jai Ram Thakur to get a sense of the ground situation. Thakur casually told her that ‘roads were severely damaged and it was taking days to reach some areas for him also’. He never advised her against visiting. But she indirectly blamed Thakur for telling her not to go.”
The leader also pointed out how, recently, Ranaut took down a post on X comparing US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and then publicly said it was done on the instructions of BJP president J P Nadda. “It only reflected her political immaturity.”
A section of local BJP workers in the state blames the leaders who pushed for Ranaut’s candidature for the current situation. “Although Jai Ram Thakur was given the responsibility of ensuring Kangana’s victory in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, she got the ticket only after a consensus could not be built around local leaders such as Bihari Lal Sharma and Ajay Rana,” said a local worker. “Now, those who blocked the local candidates must take responsibility. People in Mandi still remember the working style of politicians such as the late MP Ram Swaroop Sharma, who began and ended his day listening to the grievances of his constituents.”
A local leader claimed that Ranaut, in a recent podcast interview, appeared to be dismissive of public concerns, saying people approached her with petty complaints such as sewage issues or street repairs. “It seems she has bigger ambitions, some grand plans for herself,” said the party functionary.
However, Ranaut continues to enjoy the support of state BJP president Bindal. Dismissing the criticism of the Mandi MP, Bindal said, “There is no reason to question her. Instead, the focus should be on questioning the state government. The entire BJP has been actively campaigning in Mandi since the cloudbursts. BJP leaders and volunteers brought thousands of relief kits. There are severely affected areas where even Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu took almost 10 days to visit. The question of our woman MP reaching Mandi late simply doesn’t arise.”