New Delhi: Ravneet Singh Bittu has resigned as the Minister of State for Railways and Food Processing Industries, with President Droupadi Murmu accepting his resignation with immediate effect on the advice of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
An official government statement said the President approved Bittu’s resignation from the Union Council of Ministers while she is on a three-nation foreign visit.
Bittu, who has been part of the Union government since 2024, is expected to shift his focus to the Punjab Assembly elections due next year.
The grandson of former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh, Bittu joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2024 and contested the Lok Sabha election from Ludhiana, where he lost to Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring by 20,942 votes.
Following his defeat, Bittu was elected to the Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan to fill the remainder of the term vacated by Congress leader K.C. Venugopal.
Bittu had earlier contested the 2017 Punjab Assembly election from Jalalabad on a Congress ticket. In that high-profile contest against Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal and Aam Aadmi Party leader Bhagwant Mann, he finished third, with Badal emerging victorious.
The resignation comes as the BJP has ruled out any electoral alliance with the Shiromani Akali Dal and indicated that it plans to contest the upcoming Punjab Assembly elections on its own.
During his recent visit to Punjab, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also criticised the Shiromani Akali Dal, alleging that the party was driven by vested interests rather than the welfare of the people of Punjab.
