‘Sikh face from Punjab’: Ravneet Singh Bittu inducted into PM Modi’s council of ministers

Bittu has been chosen ahead of Taranjit Singh Sandhu, a former diplomat who lost from Amritsar; Parampal Kaur Sidhu, a former IAS officer who lost from Bathinda; and singer Hans Raj Hans, who lost from Faridkot.

Bittu, the grandson of slain Punjab chief minister Beant Singh, shifted to the BJP ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. (File Photo)

Though he lost from Ludhiana in Lok Sabha elections 2024, BJP leader and three-time former Congress MP Ravneet Singh Bittu has been inducted into Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s council of ministers.

Bittu has been chosen ahead of Taranjit Singh Sandhu, a former diplomat who lost from Amritsar; Parampal Kaur Sidhu, a former IAS officer who lost from Bathinda; and singer Hans Raj Hans, who lost from Faridkot.

Speaking to the news agency ANI in Delhi, Bittu said the Modi government has prioritised the development of Punjab by making him a minister despite his loss. “The BJP has proved that its priority is the development of Punjab. Even when I was with the Congress, I always spoke for the national interest on several issues, be it our relations with Canada and Pakistan or drugs. Punjab is a border state with several issues. I will be a bridge between the people of Punjab and Delhi.”

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“We must solve issues such as farmer protests in coordination with the Centre. In the next two years, we will bring so much development to Punjab that people will develop trust in the BJP. We will prepare the ground for the 2027 Punjab Assembly elections,” he added.

Bittu, the grandson of slain Punjab chief minister Beant Singh, shifted to the BJP ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. He contested from Ludhiana but lost to Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring by over 20,000 votes.

Congratulating Bittu, Warring said: “I am happy for my old friend. I hope this will bring development and big projects for Punjab, especially Ludhiana.”

Bittu was previously elected as Lok Sabha MP from Anandpur Sahib in 2009 and then from Ludhiana in 2014 and 2019 on a Congress ticket. He is a native of Kotla Afghana village of the Payal Assembly segment in the Ludhiana district.

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While campaigning for Bittu, senior BJP leader Amit Shah said in a rally in Ludhiana that Bittu was his “dost” (friend) and that he would soon make “Bittu bada aadmi”

Before Modi’s swearing-in ceremony, all MPs who will be part of the council of ministers attended a tea programme at his residence in New Delhi on Sunday.

Divya Goyal

Divya Goyal is a Principal Correspondent with The Indian Express, based in Punjab. Her interest lies in exploring both news and feature stories, with an effort to reflect human interest at the heart of each piece. She writes on gender issues, education, politics, Sikh diaspora, heritage, the Partition among other subjects. She has also extensively covered issues of minority communities in Pakistan and Afghanistan. She also explores the legacy of India's partition and distinct stories from both West and East Punjab. She is a gold medalist from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), Delhi, the most revered government institute for media studies in India, from where she pursued English Journalism (Print). Her research work on “Role of micro-blogging platform Twitter in content generation in newspapers” had won accolades at IIMC. She had started her career in print journalism with Hindustan Times before switching to The Indian Express in 2012. Her investigative report in 2019 on gender disparity while treating women drug addicts in Punjab won her the Laadli Media Award for Gender Sensitivity in 2020. She won another Laadli for her ground report on the struggle of two girls who ride a boat to reach their school in the border village of Punjab. ... Read More

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