Rajya Sabha bypoll: BJP fields Ravneet Bittu from Rajasthan

Chandigarh

The BJP’s central leadership has declared Ravneet Singh Bittu as its candidate for the Rajya Sabha bypoll from Rajasthan.

The byelection for the lone vacant Rajya Sabha seat in Rajasthan will be held on September 3.

“I am deeply honored and grateful to Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri @narendramodi ji, Hon’ble Union Home Minister Shri @AmitShah ji, National President of BJP Shri @JPNadda ji, and the esteemed leadership of the BJP for placing their trust in me by nominating me for Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan,” Bittu wrote on X in his first response after his nomination by the BJP.

“I pledge to work tirelessly to make our great nation and party proud. With your support, I will strive to uphold the values and principles of our constitution and contribute to the progress and prosperity of our country. Jai Hind,” he tweeted.

Bittu is currently serving as Union minister of state for railways and food processing industries. He had quit the Congress and joined the BJP ahead of the Lok Sabha polls this year.

This Rajya Sabha seat in Rajasthan fell vacant following the resignation of Congress’ KC Venugopal after he was elected to the Lok Sabha from Kerala’s Alappuzha seat.

Having 115 MLAs out of the present 195 in the 200-member Rajasthan assembly (five seats are currently vacant), BJP looks poised to win the lone Rajya Sabha seat comfortably, said political observers.

Bittu, who lost the recently held Lok Sabha polls from Ludhiana to Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring by a margin of 20,942 votes, was surprise pick in the Narendra Modi government.

Ever since the BJP inducted Bittu as a minister, it was evident that he will contest for the Rajya Sabha from some other state.

Buoyed over jump in the vote share in Punjab — from 6.6% in the 2022 assembly polls to 18.56% in the recent Lok Sabha elections — the BJP is planning to take this momentum forward. The move to induct Bittu as a minister in the Modi 3.0 assumed significance as the party seeks to spread its footprint in the state.

Bittu, a Jat Sikh, is a grandson of former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh, who fought terrorism and was assassinated in Chandigarh on August 31, 1995.

Known for his strong views against pro-Khalistan leaders, Bittu’s induction into the ministry was seen as a clever move by the BJP to pick a nationalist Sikh face.

Bittu’s closeness with Union home minister Amit Shah is an open secret as during election campaigning, Bittu called Shah his friend and in turn, Shah promised to make Bittu a ‘bada aadmi’.

Bittu, who won the Ludhiana seat in 2014 and 2019 on Congress ticket, also represented the Anandpur Sahib constituency between 2009 and 2014. He was first fielded as a Lok Sabha candidate in 2009 from Anandpur Sahib as a part of an experiment, championed by Rahul Gandhi, to effect a generational change in the state unit.