BJP leader Navneet Kaur Rana is currently trailing while Congress’s Balwant Wankhade is leading with 14214 votes as of 4:22 pm. It is interesting to note that Rana who in 2019 won as an independent candidate in the Lok Sabha Elections, is now struggling to maintain her position.
Who is Navneet Kaur Rana?
Navneet Kaur Rana is a punjabi-origin former actress turned politician, whose majority of the cinematic works accounts for Telugu film industry. Upon marrying Ravi Rana, an independent MLA from Badnera constituency of Amravati, in 2011, she joined politics. Initially, she led 2014 Lok Sabha Elections as a Nationalist Congress Party candidate from Amravati. However, she failed to make it to the list of members of parliament.
Rana’s victory only counted when she led the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections as an independent candidate with the support of Indian National Congress and Nationalist Congress Party. In the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections, Rana defeated Shiv Sena candidate, Anandrao Adsul.
For the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections, she joined BJP on March 28, 2024.
It is speculated that the reason behind Rana being not on the top could be the April 2022 case, when Rana along with her husband were arrested by Mumbai police for reciting hanuman chalisa in front of Maharashtra’s then chief minister, Uddhav Thackeray’s residence, Matoshree. The duo were charged of sedition, promoting enmity, assaulting a public servant and were sent to judicial custody for 14 days.