Who is Ravneet Singh Bittu?

Born in Ludhiana to an affluent political family in 1975, Ravneet Singh Bittu currently serves as MoS Railways and Food Processing Industries. Bittu is also a BJP Rajya Sabha MP from Rajasthan.

 

Early Life

Bittu is the grandson of Congress stalwart and ex-Punjab CM Beant Singh, who was assassinated by militants in 1995. Bittu also lost his father in a car accident when he was just 11-years-old. Notably, the 49-year-old politician is a former national-level hockey player and still remains passionate about sports.

Political Career

Bittu's political career kickstarted when he met Rahul Gandhi in 2007 and was subsequently made Punjab Youth Congress chief in 2008. Bittu became an LS MP for the first time in 2009 when he won from Anandpur Sahib in Punjab on a Congress ticket. Later, in 2014 and 2019 General Elections, Bittu won from Ludhiana, again on a Congress ticket.

 

The two consecutive wins elevated Bittu's stature in the Congress party and some even started considering him as a trusted aid of Rahul Gandhi. It is to be noted that Congress fielded Bittu in the 2017 Punjab Assembly polls from Jalalabad against Shiromani Akali Dal supremo Sukhbir Singh Badal and AAP stalwart Bhagwant Mann. However, Bittu secured third spot in this triangular contest.

 

Congress even appointed Bittu as the party's leader in Lok Sabha for a brief period in 2021, especially when Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury got busy in the then West Bengal Assembly campaign.

 

However, in a major turn of events, Bittu decided to break his decades-old relationship with Congress and joined BJP just ahead of the 2024 General Elections. BJP fielded him from Ludhiana but he lost by a narrow margin of around 21,000 votes to Punjab Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring.

 

Despite being defeated, BJP overlooked its other senior Punjab leaders to appoint Bittu as an MoS and also give a Rajya Sabha berth to him.