Ravneet Singh Bittu was on Sunday inducted as a minister in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government. Bittu lost by a small margin from Ludhiana parliamentary constituency to Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring.
During his campaign speech in Ludhiana, the Union Home Minister Amit Shah urged the people of Ludhiana to elect him and hinted that he would be made a minister. He stood by his word.
Although Bittu did not win as an MP, he did lead in five of the nine assembly segments, all of these urban. Inducting him as a minister conveys an important message to the electorate and the people that their choice was respected.
Bittu is the grandson of former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh, who was assassinated by militants in a suicide bomb attack while being the Chief Minister.
Bittu is one of the two remaining successors of Beant Singh’s political legacy. His other cousin Gurkirat Singh Kotli is still with the Congress. He lost the last assembly election in 2022 from Khanna.
Bittu is a three-time MP who lost for the first time in this election. First, he was elected from Sri Anandpur Sahib in 2009 and then consecutively in 2014 and 2019 from Ludhiana.
Besides being the grandson of slain Chief Minister Beant Singh, two other leaders have had great and unparalleled contributions in his political career.
First is former Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh who facilitated his “election” as the Punjab Youth Congress president in 2009. It was for the first time that the youth Congress president was chosen through elections instead of being directly appointed.
Second was Rahul Gandhi, who specially picked him to contest from Sri Anandpur Sahib parliamentary constituency while ignoring stalwarts like Ms Ambika Soni, despite her being a close family friend.
Bittu was just around 34 years of age at that time. Those days, Bittu did not tie the turban. He was advised to tie the turban by Gandhi and he heeded the advice. Bittu has himself said that he was advised to tie the turban by Gandhi.
In 2024, ahead of the General Elections, Bittu made a switchover to the Congress. While many people have accused him of being an opportunist, he had his own “political reasons” for that.
He realized that there was strong anti-incumbency for ten years against him. Added to that was his inaccessibility. He was not even available on phone to anyone, not even to senior leaders, leave aside the common party workers. It is probably that anti-incumbency he carried along to his new party, which prevented him from winning this time.
Even the strong support for the BJP in urban areas could not neutralise that.
Bittu’s core vote base was among the Hindus, who always voted for him en bloc because of Beant Singh. While a section of people holds Beant Singh responsible for human rights violations during the anti-militancy operations in Punjab, the other section describes him as their and Punjab’s saviour.
It is this section, which would always vote for Bittu and see him through. But this time, that particular section was strongly tilted towards the BJP because of the construction of the Ram Mandir and also because of Narendra Modi.
Although he lost even after joining the BJP, the defeat would have been more severe had he remained with the Congress. Because those who always voted for him would have, as they did, voted for the BJP, while rural areas have not favoured him much even in the past, again because of his grandfather.
In the end, Bittu proved to be lucky, by becoming the minister even after losing to his former friend and PCC president Raja Warring.
With the ministerial assignment, there will also come a lot of responsibilities for him. He will need to get rid of his past image, reputation and habit of being inaccessible.
The BJP is known for enforcing the accountability of its leaders. Bittu is being groomed for a much more important role in Punjab, where the BJP wants to strengthen its position.
Although it could not win any parliamentary constituency in Punjab, the BJP has already shown great promise and performance in the General Elections, by leading in 23 assembly segments and getting 18.6 per cent vote share, much ahead of the Akalis who got only 9 per cent vote share and led from 9 assembly segments only.
The BJP has also conveyed another message that it values those who join and stand by it, irrespective of their electoral performance.
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