Of devs, devniti in Himachal: How age-old traditions enter campaign

Maintaining a distance from the media during campaigning, Kangana Ranaut, the first Bollywood celebrity to contest Lok Sabha elections from Himachal Pradesh, has, however, followed a simple strategy to shed her “outsider tag” – interacting with locals in their dialects, obliging to their selfie requests and daily temple visits.

Her opponent and the scion of the erstwhile Rampur estate, Vikramaditya Singh, has less to prove to the locals, who consider him as one of them.

In the Mandi LS seat, BJP’s ‘Queen’ and Congress’ ‘King’ are pitted against each other, but share a common thing – they are trying to stick to the age-old practice of ‘Devniti’ followed in the hill state.

While ‘Devniti’ could be loosely translated to the rule of the ‘Devta’ and is often juxtaposed with ‘rajneeti’ (rule of the king), the contenders have not shied away from taking the help of gods to ensure their victory.

Amid the mudslinging in Mandi seat, Vikramaditya has touched the sensitive religious chord of the people by alleging that temples where Kangana is visiting need to be purified owing to her food habits.

In Takoli, Vikramaditya said, “What she eats is against our culture. ‘Mandiro ki safai honi chahiye’ (Temples she has visited need to be purified). People of Devbhoomi are hurt over this.”

Kangana says her typical campaign day starts with paying obeisance at temples of local deities while videos of her dancing with local women and sweeping temple premises have gone viral.

The temple run also owes significance as defying his party’s stance on the Ram Temple event, the son of former CM Virbhadra Singh, Vikramaditya also attended the temple consecration ceremony in Ayodhya.

For the people of Himachal, their beliefs are often guided by the local gods