Behind Ravneet Bittu elevation to Union MoS despite LS poll defeat, BJP game plan for 2027

The induction of ex-Congress MP from Ludhiana, Ravneet Singh Bittu, grandson of slain former Punjab chief minister and Congress stalwart Beant Singh, into the new Narendra Modi-led Union ministry as the Minister of State (MoS) within three months of switching to the BJP – and despite losing the Lok Sabha polls – has signalled a new approach of the ruling party towards Punjab politics.

Bittu’s remarkable elevation has come at a time when the BJP, which has a support base among the Hindu community in Punjab, was seen to be wooing Sikhs over emotive issues like the opening of the Kartarpur Sahib corridor, commemorating the martyrdom of Guru Gobind Singh’s children as Veer Bal Divas, and the notification on the release of several Sikh prisoners.

On the eve of the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev, on October 11, 2019, the BJP-led Centre issued a notification for the release of eight Sikh prisoners and called for the death sentence of Beant Singh’s assassin Balwant Singh Rajoana to be commuted to life imprisonment.

Over the last few years, almost all political parties in Punjab have turned soft on the Sikh prisoners’ issue, but Bittu has strongly opposed the release of Rajoana. Just after quitting the Congress, Bittu even claimed that Rahul Gandhi had wanted him to forgive Rajoana.

In the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had said that the killers of Bittu’s grandfather would not be spared even as he maintained silence on the issue of Punjab farmers’ protests over their demand for a law on the minimum support price (MSP) for their crops.

Bittu was chosen over other prominent BJP leaders like former MP Preneet Kaur and ex-diplomat Taranjit Singh Sandhu, whose defeats from the Patiala and Amritsar