Beant Singh’s grandson becomes Union MoS in Modi govt: Who is Ravneet Singh Bittu?

The BJP has chosen Bittu over Preneet Kaur, former Patiala MP and wife of former Punjab CM Captain Amarinder Singh, former diplomat Taranjit Singh Sandhu who lost from Amritsar, former IAS officer Parampal Kaur Sidhu who lost from Bathinda, and singer Hans Raj Hans who lost from Faridkot. The BJP had failed to open its account in the state.

Three-time Congress MP Bittu was first elected to the Lok Sabha in 2009 from Anandpur Sahib and won from Ludhiana in 2014 and 2019. Ahead of the latest Lok Sabha election, he switched to the BJP but lost to Punjab Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring by just over 20,000 votes. Bittu led in five urban segments but faced a rout in rural areas due to farmers’ protests against the BJP.

Bittu was just 11 years old when his father died and 20 years old when his grandfather and former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh was assassinated by pro-Khalistan militants in Chandigarh on August 31, 1995. It was a meeting with Congress president Rahul Gandhi in 2007 that paved his entry into politics. Before that, Bittu ran a small cement production unit.

“Rahul Gandhi had then become general secretary of the Indian Youth Congress (IYC) and I had gone to congratulate him. He told me not to let my grandfather’s legacy and sacrifice go to waste. He told me to join active politics. He could understand because we both shared the pain of losing our family members,” Bittu told The Indian Express in a recent interview. He was appointed Punjab Youth Congress chief in 2008. He was 33 years’ old at the time.

Hailing from Kotla Afghana village of Ludhiana district, Bittu comes from a family of Congress members and after his shift to the BJP, the family was politically split. His paternal uncle Tej Parkash Singh was a former Cabinet minister and his cousin Gurkirat Kotli was a two-time MLA and a Cabinet minister. Both are still in the Congress and campaigned for the party in the Lok Sabha polls.

Known to be a vocal critic of pro-Khalistani radical elements from whom he has received threats many times and a “nationalist”, Bittu also contested the 2017 Assembly polls from Jalalabad against then Deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal and then state AAP chief Bhagwant Mann, finishing third. However, Bittu is known in political circles for being friends with Mann.

In his 10-year tenure as Ludhiana MP, Bittu faced his share of criticism, especially after his half-brother Guriqbal Singh Honey was appointed as Deputy Superintendent of Punjab Police on compassionate grounds during the Congress government.

During campaigning, Bittu said his grandfather’s 1985-model White Ambassador was his lucky charm and he travelled in it while going to file his nomination papers. However, he faced criticism from Congress for using the images of “Congressman” Beant Singh on the BJP’s campaign posters.

A day before filing his nomination earlier in May, the civic body served him a notice accusing him of illegally occupying the government house in Ludhiana for eight years. Bittu was made to vacate the house and pay Rs 1.82 crore as penalty before filing the nomination. He then moved to the BJP office to sleep on the floor. During campaigning, Bittu’s videos of running away from a village in Ludhiana after facing farmers’ ire had gone viral. In another viral video, he was heard openly warning the protesting farmers that he “will see them after June 4 (the result day)”.