Shimla (PTI): BJP MP Kangana Ranaut on Sunday alleged that the Himachal Pradesh government takes loans and gives it to former Congress president Sonia Gandhi which has made the state's coffers "hollow".

Addressing people after launching a BJP membership drive at a village here, the actress-turned-politician said, "Everyone is aware that corruption is prevalent and the Congress-ruling state governments have hollowed their respective states."

She wondered how the party spends "so much" on elections.

Attacking the Congress government headed by Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, she said, "They take loans and give it to Sonia Gandhi which has made the state hollow."

"Disasters and Congress government have taken the state decades back and I would appeal to people to root out the present government," Ranaut said.

"If we give disaster funds, it should go to the CM Relief Fund but everyone knows that it goes to the Sonia relief fund," she alleged.

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Colombo (PTI): Marxist leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake on Sunday was declared winner of the Sri Lankan presidential election by the country's Election Commission after an unprecedented second round of counting of votes.

Dissanayake, 56, the leader of the Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna party's broader front National People’s Power (NPP), defeated his closest rival Sajith Premadasa of Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB).

Incumbent president Ranil Wickremesinghe was eliminated in the first round after he failed to become within the top two in the vote list.

NPP said Dissanayake will take oath on Monday.

Earlier, the Election Commission ordered a second round of counting after no candidate secured over 50 per cent votes needed to be declared the winner of Saturday's election.

Dissanayake will be the country's 9th president.

No election in Sri Lanka has ever progressed to the second round of counting, as single candidates have always emerged as clear winners based on first-preference votes.