The Aryavarth Express
Agency (New Delhi): Former Congress MP Ravneet Singh Bittu is the only leader among those who switched from the grand old party to the BJP just ahead of the Lok Sabha elections to have made it to the council of ministers, despite losing the polls from Punjab’s Ludhiana. Bittu took the oath as a Minister of State at the Rashtrapati Bhavan on Sunday.
In addition to Bittu, Jitin Prasada and Jyotiraditya Scindia are also former Congress leaders, but they had switched sides much earlier during the second term of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Prasada has been inducted as a Union Minister of State after serving as a minister in the BJP’s Uttar Pradesh government, while Scindia has been retained in the Cabinet.
Raj Bhushan Choudhari, previously with the Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) before joining the BJP in 2020, was also sworn in as a Minister of State.
In March, three-time MP Bittu joined the BJP in Delhi, stating that people had made up their minds to elect Modi as prime minister again. Bittu, the grandson of former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh, who was assassinated in a terror attack in 1995, has faced criticism from Punjab Congress leaders, who labeled his move as “gaddari” (betrayal).
Punjab Congress president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring defeated Bittu in Ludhiana by 20,942 votes. Despite this loss, Bittu has been inducted into the council of ministers to ensure representation for Punjab, where the BJP did not win any Lok Sabha seats. Bittu has been an MP twice from Ludhiana and once from Anandpur Sahib.
Prasada left the Congress in 2021 to join the BJP and served as a Cabinet Minister in the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh, holding the public works department portfolio. He retained his ministerial post in the state and continued as a Member of Legislative Council (MLC) when the BJP government was re-elected in Uttar Pradesh in 2022. Prasada won the Pilibhit Lok Sabha seat by defeating Bhagwat Saran Gangwar of the Samajwadi Party with a margin of 1,64,935 votes.
Scindia resigned from the Congress and joined the BJP in March 2020. His move led to the collapse of the Kamal Nath government in Madhya Pradesh, paving the way for the BJP to regain power after losing it in late 2018.