The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)
Ravneet Bittu, 3-time Cong MP, joins BJP
THREE-TIME CONGRESS MP Ravneet Singh Bittu (48) joined the BJP in New Delhi on Tuesday in the presence of its president J P Nadda and party general secretary Vinod Tawde. Bittu joined hours after BJP’S Punjab president Sunil Jakhar announced the party will go solo in LS polls in Punjab.
Bittu is the grandson of former Punjab CM Beant Singh who was assassinated on August 31, 1995, in Chandigarh in suicide bombing.
Bittu is currently the MP from Ludhiana, a seat he is representing for a second consecutive term. Before that, he had won the Lok Sabha election from Anandpur Sahib in 2009 when he was the Punjab Youth Congress president.
Bittu said: “I have been looking at the work of PM Narendra Modi and Union Minister Amit Shah for 10 years... Modiji has done so much for country and... Punjab...wewillworkhardtoconnect people with BJP and apprise them of what has been done for them and what is in store.”
“During the dark days of terrorism... BJP leaders had worked hand-in-hand with my grandfather (Beant Singh)... they worked as a team irrespective of party affiliations to wipe out terrorism from Punjab... Madan Mohan Mittal, Lakshmi Kanta Chawla, and many more leaders,” he said.
Politics was never the first choice for Bittu, who had initially opened a cement production unit in Ludhiana's Lalru village. It was a meeting with Congress president Rahul Gandhi in 2007 that paved his entry into politics.
Speaking to The Indian Express, Bittu said that his grandfather’s legacy, his sacrifice, still stands the supreme for him.
“He was assassinated because he raised his voice against terrorists and stood for Punjab’s peace and the country’s unity. No doubt the Congress has given a lot to the country and I have not said a single word against the party and neither will I. But, the times have changed and I must say that in today’s times, it is not about the Congress or the BJP, it’s about its leaders,” he said.