Chandigarh: Congress leader and Ludhiana MP Ravneet Bittu, 48, is the latest addition to a growing list of Congress leaders leaving the party to begin new innings in the BJP in Punjab.
Some of the top leadership currently in the BJP’s Punjab unit are former Congress state chief Sunil Jakhar and senior leaders like Captain Amarinder Singh.
Recently, Amarinder’s wife Praneet Kaur, who was Congress MP from Patiala, also joined the BJP.
Bittu, a three-time MP, also comes from a prominent Congress family. His grandfather, Beant Singh, a former CM of Punjab between 1992 and 1995, was assassinated during the Khalistan militancy.
His brother Gurkirat Singh Kotli is still a Congress MLA from Khanna, a constituency in Ludhiana district.
Bittu’s joining the BJP came as a surprise for many as there was nothing in the public domain to suggest that he might leave the Congress.
In fact, he was being considered for re-nomination from Ludhiana for the third time in a row, sources in the Congress said.
Some believe his joining the BJP is tactical. Political analyst Harjeshwar Singh told The Wire that his style of politics has often remained close to the BJP’s national plank.
Moreover, he says, there is a large Hindu and migrant population in his Ludhiana constituency, which he has won twice in a row.
He might have thought that winning the seat on a Congress ticket may be challenging this time. Therefore, he has played a gamble by fighting as a BJP candidate and using issues like the Ram Mandir and the Modi factor to sway his constituency’s voters, Harjeshwar Singh also said.
Meanwhile, reacting to Bittu’s joining the BJP, Punjab Congress president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring told the media that it is no big deal.
He said it will not damage the party and that such deserters always create opportunities for fresh faces to contest and carry the party forward.
“But Bittu has lost far more significance by leaving the party his family served with their blood. The Congress in Punjab will always be known by the supreme sacrifice of his grandfather, Beant Singh. He [Beant Singh] always wore a white turban and was a strong pillar of the Congress.
“But in the BJP, Bittu will just be another MP or minister if he wins. He will no longer be able to claim his identity as Sardar Beant Singh’s grandson,” said Warring.
He added that Bittu’s entire family is still devoted to the Congress and that his brother is very much with the party as a committed worker.
On the contrary, Bittu said during his media briefing in Delhi that he was inspired by the great work and dedication of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
He added that both the prime minister and the home minister always took it positively whenever he raised the issues of Punjab, and that he wanted to take Punjab forward but no other than the BJP has the vision to do so.
“I have joined the BJP so that Punjab is also benefited like the rest of India by PM Modi’s development agenda,” he said.
On the BJP’s performance in Punjab in the coming Lok Sabha elections, he said a record number of BJP MPs will enter parliament and help develop the border state.
