Bharat Bhushan Ashu challenges ‘close pal’ Ravneet Bittu to contest from Ludhiana
Congress leader Ravneet Singh Bittu's switch to BJP stunned party members in Ludhiana. Former colleagues expressed shock and disappointment at his decision.
Ravneet Singh Bittu’s switch to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) left the Congress leaders and workers in the city stunned.
When the news of Bittu switching party poured in, his cousin and former cabinet minister Gurkirat Kotli along with other leaders were in a meeting with Punjab Congress in-charge Devendra Yadav on Tuesday. As the news flashed, the meeting extended a bit longer as the leaders tried to make sense of the development.
The switch also left his close pal and former cabinet minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu astonished. Ashu, in a TV interview, challenged Bittu to contest the election from Ludhiana on a BJP ticket and said the party workers would teach him a lesson along with Dr Raj Kumar Chabbewal and Gurpreet Singh GP from Fatehgarh Sahib, who switched to AAP ahead of the elections.
“His grandfather, former CM Beant Singh, was a great man and laid down his life for the people. Bittu was carrying his legacy. I was a close friend to him and a critic also. He was continuously correcting him. Before switching the party, he didn’t even discuss it with his family members,” Ashu said.
Till recently, Bittu was in the news for spearheading protests in the city. On January 25, Bittu put a lock on the main gate of the carcass plant in Nurpur Bet village and later, locked the Municipal Corporation building on February 27.
He was booked by the police in both cases and was arrested on March 5 along with Ashu, district Congress chief Sanjay Talwar and former senior deputy mayor Sham Sundar Malhotra. They were bailed out the next day. Bittu was detained at his residence along with Sanjay Talwar by the police on March 12.
Talwar said that he along with Bittu have been holding meetings at block level for the past 15 days and making strategy ahead of Lok Sabha elections.
“I am shocked by his decision and I have no idea why he would leave the party which gave him a ticket from Anandpur Sahib constituency in 2009 and then from Ludhiana in 2014 and 2019. The party had invested in Bittu but he didn’t think of discussing such a big decision with his fellow workers,” Talwar said, adding, “As elections are two months away, the party would recover.”
Gurkirat Singh Kotli, Bittu’s cousin, said he had no idea and he has taken the decision to join the BJP on his own