Fight against betrayal: Raja Warring on his poll bout versus Ravneet Bittu in Ludhiana

Chandigarh: It is a "fight against betrayal". This is how Congress nominee from Punjab's Ludhiana Lok Sabha seat Amrinder Singh Raja Warring describes his electoral battle against former party colleague, and now BJP candidate, Ravneet Singh Bittu.

Bittu, who had won the seat for the Congress in 2014 and 2019, quit to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on March 26, just 10 days after the announcement of the parliamentary polls.

"This is a (electoral) fight against betrayal, the way he (Bittu) deceived the party, the party' workers and the people," Warring, 46, who is also the Punjab Congress chief, told PTI.

"Punjabis do not like 'dhokhebaaz'. I think it is one-sided and it is clear that Bittu will not win this election at all," said the three-time MLA from Gidderbaha in Muktsar district.

Warring, who is being seen as the Congress' best bet to retain Ludhiana, considered a bastion of the party with consecutive wins since 2009, exuded confidence that he will be victorious.

He also rejected Bittu's charge that the Congress has fielded an "outsider". The BJP candidate levelled the charge against Warring as he is an MLA from Gidderbaha.

Then by this logic, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is an "outsider" as he is contesting from Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh and BJP leader Smriti Irani -- contesting from Amethi in Uttar Pradesh -- is also an "outsider", Warring said.

In the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, Bittu, who is the grandson of former Punjab chief minister the late Beant Singh, had won from Anandpur Sahib, while Ludhiana in that year was won by Manish Tewari.

On the Bittu's "outsider" jab at him, Warring said BJP leader Hans Raj Hans is the sitting MP from North West Delhi but now he is contesting Faridkot in Punjab.

The Congress leader said such a statement shows Bittu is "unnerved". "They (BJP) do not have any issue. What is an outsider? I am Punjab Congress president and Punjab Congress president is not an outsider," Warring said.

He said for the people of Punjab only that person matters who raises their issues and that of the country Besides Bittu and Warring, Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) Ashok Parashar and Shiromani Akali Dal's (SAD) Ranjit Singh Dhillon are also contesting the polls from Ludhiana, which goes to polls along with the other 12 seats in Punjab on June 1 in the last and seventh round of the general elections.

To a question that the AAP is seeking votes on the basis of works done in the past two years by the Bhagwant Mann-led government in Punjab, Warring lashed out at the current dispensation in the state, saying, "I do not think they (AAP) have a single achievement. They have destroyed Punjab and this is their only achievement." "Law and order has collapsed, the drug problem has spread, illegal sand mining has gone up, state debt has risen, corruption has increased," Warring, a former Indian Youth Congress president and former transport minister, said.

"This is the 'badlav' (change) they (AAP) brought in the state," the Congress leader said as he accused the AAP of being unable to deliver on its pre-assembly poll promises.

On his political rivals, Warring said the BJP and its former ally SAD are nowhere in Punjab. "They are fighting for survival," he said.

Trashing the AAP's claim of winning all 13 seats in Punjab, Warring claimed that the Congress will win the maximum number of seats in the state.