CHANDIGARH: In the charged forecourt of the Parliament, amid slogans and symbolism, a brief exchange between LoP Rahul Gandhi and BJP minister Ravneet Singh Bittu snowballed into a controversy.
During a protest by suspended Opposition MPs in the Parliament complex on Wednesday, Bittu, who had joined the BJP after exiting Congress ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, allegedly remarked that the MPs were sitting as if they had won a war.
Rahul Gandhi responded with a smile: “Hello, brother! My 'traitor' friend. Don’t worry, you’ll come back!"
Once among Rahul Gandhi’s closest protégés in Punjab, Bittu now stands at the opposite side of the aisle. His journey is emblematic of churn, ambition and sharp rhetoric that defines contemporary Indian politics.
At 50, Ravneet Singh Bittu carries a formidable political legacy.
He is the grandson of former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh, assassinated by pro-Khalistani militants in 1995. That legacy long anchored him within the Congress.
Meanwhile, today, as Union Minister of State for Railways and Food Processing Industries in the BJP-led government, he embodies a rare but consequential political crossing.
Bittu hails from Kotla Afghana village in Ludhiana district. His early life was shaped by personal losses; his father died when he was 11, and his grandfather was assassinated when he was 20.
Politics was not his initial pursuit. As a Class XII pass-out, he once ran a small cement factory, seemingly distant from public life.
His life changed in 2007 when he met Rahul Gandhi, then newly appointed general secretary of the Indian Youth Congress. Gandhi reportedly urged him not to squander his grandfather’s legacy and to enter politics.
Within a year, Bittu was appointed as president of the Punjab Youth Congress at 33, a rapid rise that reflected Gandhi’s faith in him.
In 2009, Bittu was elected to the Lok Sabha from Anandpur Sahib on a Congress ticket. He later shifted to Ludhiana, winning parliamentary elections in 2014 and again in 2019.
In 2020, he was appointed Congress whip in the Lok Sabha, cementing his status as a party insider and trusted lieutenant of the Gandhi leadership.
His career, however, was not without setbacks.
In the 2017 Punjab Assembly elections, Bittu contested from Jalalabad against Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal and AAP leader Bhagwant Mann.
He finished third, reminding us that lineage alone does not guarantee electoral success. Yet, he maintained cordial relations across party lines, including Mann, who is now Punjab’s Chief Minister.
The decisive break came ahead of the 2024 general elections, when Bittu quit the Congress and joined the BJP.
The move shocked Punjab’s Congress leadership, which viewed him as both heir and symbol of the party.
Contesting from Ludhiana on a BJP ticket, Bittu lost to Punjab Congress president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring by over 20,000 votes.
Despite the defeat, the BJP stood firmly by him.
Bittu was nominated to the Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan and inducted into the Modi 3.0 Cabinet, signalling the party’s confidence in his political experience and strategic value in Punjab.
A day before filing his nomination, the Ludhiana civic body accused him of illegally occupying a government house for eight years. He was forced to vacate and pay Rs 1.82 crore as a penalty.
The same night, he reportedly slept on the floor of the BJP office, an event that quickly entered the campaign's focus.
Congress leaders attacked him for using Beant Singh’s image on BJP posters. Bittu defended himself fiercely, insisting that his grandfather’s legacy was personal, not partisan.
He even revived Beant Singh’s old white Ambassador, calling it his 'lucky charm'.
A vocal critic of pro-Khalistani elements, Bittu frequently describes himself as a nationalist and has claimed to have received threats in the past.
From Congress loyalist to BJP minister, Ravneet Singh Bittu’s journey reflects the volatility of Indian politics, where allegiance is fluid, and legacy remains constantly renegotiated.