Ravneet Bittu scores a hat-trick

Minna Zutshi
Tribune News Service
Ludhiana, May 23

Indian National Congress candidate Ravneet Singh Bittu has won from the Ludhiana Lok Sabha constituency for the second consecutive time. This is his hat-trick as the Member of Parliament – in 2009, he was elected MP from Anandpur Sahib.

Bittu defeated his nearest rival, the Lok Insaaf Party leader and Punjab Democratic Alliance candidate Simarjit Singh Bains, by a margin of 76,372 votes.  

This is the third consecutive time that the Congress has won from the Ludhiana Lok Sabha constituency. In 2009, Congress leader Manish Tewari was elected Member of Parliament.

Though, with the possibility of the anti-incumbency factor being at play, political observers had not envisaged an easy win for Bittu. However, Bittu not only managed to win but also secured a comfortable margin of more than 76,000 votes.

After registering his win, Bittu talked about the cleaning of the Buddha Nullah. He said cleaning the nullah and restoring it to its earlier glory wherein the clear, sparkling waters were used even for drinking purposes, would be a priority for him.

Talking to media persons, he gave the credit for his victory to the goodwill of his slain grandfather late Beant Singh.    

In 2014 polls, Bittu had polled 3,00,459 votes, while HS Phoolka, who was the Aam Aadmi Party candidate, had secured 2,80,750 votes. Bittu had won with a thin margin of 19,709 votes in 2014 polls.  In the rural Assembly segments, AAP had performed better than the winning candidate Bittu.  

Vote break-up

•  Cong 3,83,795
•  PDA 3,07,423
•  SAD 2,99,435
•  AAP 15,945
• General votes 10,34,430
• Postal votes 1,987
• Total votes 10,36,417
• NOTA 10,458
• Postal NOTA 80
• Rejected postal votes 70
• Total votes counted 10,47,025
• Tendered votes 3