Ludhiana in Punjab has become a war-zone between two friends-turned-foes with a fight on the ‘Gaddar versus Vafadar’ theme. Two-time sitting MP Ravneet Singh Bittu has jumped ship from the Congress to the BJP, and Amarinder Raja Singh Warring, the Punjab Congress president, decided to contest against him from Ludhiana.
“I am not any surprise candidate from Ludhiana… as the state Congress chief, the whole state is my responsibility. But yes, I want to teach the gaddar a lesson, someone whom the party made an MP three times and gave him responsibilities but who deserted us,” Warring told News18 in Ludhiana, taking on Bittu. He also predicted that Bittu would finish at the fifth place in Ludhiana, much like the latter’s number on the EVM.
With the Akali Dal not on the BJP’s side and facing farmer union protests, Bittu is focusing his campaign in the rural areas of Ludhiana. His posters all over Ludhiana have a clear message — ‘Vote for Modi’ — with Bittu knowing that he needs to lean on the PM’s appeal to win this time from Ludhiana.
“I am a vafadaar to my country and to the vision of Narendra Modi. Time will show who is the real gaddar,” Bittu told News18.
The Wagah Border Promise
Bittu claimed to News18 that the Wagah border will open for trade with Pakistan within one year if the BJP retains power at the Centre. “Union Minister Nitin Gadkari has already prepared the roadmap. The Wagah border trade will be opened, our things like food items will go there and we will get 2-3 times more than MSP also,” Bittu told News18.
The Attari-Wagah border trade is a major issue in Punjab. The trade route has been lying shut for the last few years amid India-Pakistan tensions.
Bittu, the grandson of former Punjab CM and senior Congress leader Beant Singh, also explained why he left the Congress. “The Congress has disappeared from everywhere… last 10 years I was an MP in both the terms for the Congress but we were told to do only one thing – stop government from working and raise slogans against them. People do not send us for this job, they send us to Parliament to work,” Bittu told News18.
He said there is no doubt that Narendra Modi will be PM for the third term and hence Punjab should not remain distant from the mainstream. “See the development in UP, Bihar, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh where the BJP is in power. Ours is a border state, drugs are running amok here, gang wars are happening here… farmer agitation is happening. If someone does not go sit inside the BJP, how will Punjab’s issued be solved? Punjab is under severe debt, how can we survive without central government?” Bittu told News18.
He also said he will bring AIIMS and Metro in Ludhiana and revise the industry here. “Sonia Gandhi speaks of promoting Rahul Gandhi, Lalu Prasad speaks of promoting Tejashwi Yadav. Ask Warring and he will not be able to say who their PM face is. We clearly say it is going to be Modi… Punjab needs to walk with Modi for development, Congress has no vision,” said Bittu.
Target AAP
Both Bittu and Warring agree on one thing though – that the AAP government in Punjab has failed to fulfill its promises. “Women in Punjab are telling AAP workers that first transfer Rs 26,000 in our account and then seek votes for AAP. Bhagwant Mann had promised women Rs 1,000 a month while coming to power 26 months ago. Not a penny has been given,” Congress’s Amarinder Raja Warring told News18. His party is in an alliance with the AAP nationwide, but not in Punjab.
Bittu said that in Punjab “ek pee raha hai aur Delhi mein ek pila raha hai” to take a swipe at purported alcoholism of CM Bhagwant Mann and the alleged liquor scam of Arvind Kejriwal. “Delhi CM Kejriwal is not on bail, he is on parole. All his posters in Punjab show him behind bars… his place is in jail very soon, not in the CMO,” Bittu told News18.
Bittu also pointed out the dichotomy wherein Congress and AAP are fighting together in Delhi, Haryana and even in Punjab’s capital seat of Chandigarh but are fighting separately in Punjab. “Do they think people of Punjab are fools? Punjabi people may be naive but they are not foolish.”
Akali Dal and AAP are also in the contest in Ludhiana and some speak of Akali Dal’s hold in the villages where some spoke of the “good times” of Akali rule when good roads were built in Ludhiana and the city’s industry thrived. It remains to be seen whose party the Akali Dal and AAP candidates will spoil – of Ravneet Bittu or Raja Warring.
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