“Kuch vi hoje Bittu ni jittan dena”, How Punjab Congress is going all out to win Ludhiana Lok Sabha battle

The defection of Bittu, three-time Congress MP and the grandson of slain Punjab CM Beant Singh, from Congress to BJP, came as a rude shock for the Congress which has now fielded Warring from the seat. Since 2009, Ludhiana seat has been won by Congress. In 2009, Manish Tewari won it, followed by Bittu in 2014 and 2019.

From getting a house in the city to playing cricket, feeding cows, shaking a leg at religious programmes, performing aerobics with morning walkers – Warring and Bajwa are hardly leaving anything to “teach Bittu a lesson”, with less than a month to go for polling. Once a dyed-in-wool Congressman, three-time MP Bittu (twice from Ludhiana and once from Anandpur Sahib) has declared Warring an “oustsider”. Bajwa on Sunday announced that he has accepted Bittu’s challenge and has shifted his base to Ludhiana till voting doesn’t conclude on June 1. Bajwa said that he won’t be living in any hotel and shifted to an NRI friend’s vacant house so that he is in Ludhiana round-the-clock to ensure that Warring wins and “people like Bittu are taught the much-needed lesson.”

Warring feeding cows at a gaushala. (Express photo)

Bajwa said: “I was challenged to shift my base to Ludhiana. So here I am. I will now be camp here and operate from Ludhiana. We had promised that we will give such a candidate to Ludhiana who will do good sewa of Bittu ji politically. And now when my younger brother Warring is contesting, I will ensure that he wins.”

Bajwa said that Bittu must note that he “has properly shifted his base to Ludhiana as he had challenged.”

“I am not living in any hotel. I have shited to my friend’s vacant house. Ludhiana is the heart of Punjab and I will go wherever I have to, from here. I will be back to Ludhiana every evening even if I have to visit other constituencies.

Ludhiana has been a bastion of Congress and it will remain so. We have to teach a lesson to the MP (Bittu) who has backstabbed a party that gave him and his family so much,” Bajwa said.

Bajwa added that Bittu had a habit of not attending to phone calls and ignoring the workers. “Bittu is the one who conspired with CM Bhagwant Mann to get (Congress leader and former minister) Bharat Bhushan Ashu arrested in false corruption case. Bittu and Mann are very close to each other,” alleged Bajwa, while speaking to the media, Sunday.

Warring with morning walkers. (Express Photo)

Meanwhile, Warring, who is three-time MLA from Gidderbaha of Muktsar district, and for whom Ludhiana is a whole new constituency, is putting up at the residences of his party workers, shifting from one place to the other every night. One of his campaign managers said: “He stays busy whole day in campaigning and at sleeps at the home of any of our block president or worker. This is also helping him in getting grassroot feedback, hold meetings anytime and strengthen ties with party workers. Our priority is to first open an election office in Ludhiana at a suitable location.”

And there’s hardly a chance that Warring is missing to interact with voters. On Sunday, Warring performed aerobics with morning walkers and also played cricket at the mini Rose Garden. On Saturday, he also came face-to-face with Bittu while campaigning at a religious programme. As the evening turned musical, Bittu also shook a leg and showed some dance moves on religious hymns.

Cong’s Warring and BJP’s Bittu together at a religious programme. Even as pro-Modi slogans were raised, Warring did not leave the venue. (Express Photo)

However, it was Warring’s sportsman spirit which garnered praise. Even as the compere on the stage started singing lyrics such as “Jo Ram ko laaye hain, hum bhi unko laayenge” (We will bring those who have got Ram) and audiences started raising slogans in favor of PM Narendra Modi, Punjab Congress chief Warring did not leave the programme and retained his composure.

During his campaigning speeches, Warring has been telling people of Ludhiana that they also deserve a government medical college and hospital such as PGIMER or AIIMS instead of being dependent on private institutions such as DMCH and CMCH. He has also been telling people that “you will be proud of electing an MP who will raise issues of Ludhiana in Lok Sabha.”