Holding 8-10 meetings a day, Bittu says oppn rattled by support for Cong (with pic)

Ludhiana: With just a day left for campaigning, the candidates are trying to reach out to maximum voters in different areas in Ludhiana.
Facing a challenge to retain his seat, Congress candidate Ravneet Singh Bittu starts his day early. His first election meeting generally starts at 8.30am and he conducts 8-10 meetings in a day and sometimes in different assembly constituencies.
On Thursday, Bittu held nine meetings in Gill, Dakha and Jagraon areas till late night and oversaw the arrangements for his roadshow scheduled for Friday.
Talking to TOI, Bittu spoke on a lot of issues including ant-incumbency wave, his opponents and the reports about rebels in Congress.
Asked about claims of his opponent Simarjit Singh Bains, who has termed him a show-off and not resolving any issue of the city, Bittu said, “It is really amusing that the person who has already earned the tag of being the biggest publicity seeker is raising such allegations against me. Moreover, unlike Bains I am not that free in my daily routine to look for chances to pull off petty stings to kill time, as I devote my time to resolve problems of the people and work for development of the city.”
On the issue of anti-incumbency wave against Congress due to non-fulfillment of the promises like free mobile phones, wiping off drugs problem, giving employment to youth, Bittu said, “I don’t think there is any anti-incumbency wave against our party at all. Had this been the case, we would not have won one election after another with thumping majority.”
“Moreover, all that was promised by our party in its manifesto is being implemented one at a time in the state. Take the case of farm loan waivers, the promise which was fulfilled by chief minister Amarinder Singh after coming to power. So it’s just matter of time that all the remaining promises too will be fulfilled and people of state know that our government will never backtrack from its commitments and that is why in every election they are giving a befitting reply to our opponents who only looted and destroyed Punjab,” he said.
On the question of using the name of his grandfather late chief minister Beant Singh to gather voter sympathy, Bittu said, “It was only due to the contribution and strong will power of my grandfather that there is peace in Punjab. Our family had to pay a heavy price for this as he too had to sacrifice his life for the sake of maintaining this peace. I am just following in his footstep and I too am ready to sacrifice anything for my nation, my state and my people.”
“Actually, it is nothing less than cheap politics on part of my opponents who accuse me of using my grandfather’s name for getting votes. Had I any intention of using his name, I would have easily become a minister in the state government or been a Union minister in the previous central governments,” Bittu added.
Dismissing the reports of some of Congress’s own leaders engaged in asking voters to vote against him, Bittu said, “These are baseless rumours, which are being spread by my opponents who are rattled as surveys have clearly indicated that Congress is going to secure record win this time. What to do you think was the reason for PM Modi to cancel his rally in favour of SAD-BJP candidate. It is quite obvious that whether it’s SAD-BJP, Lok Insaaf Party or Aam Aadmi Party, they all have already conceded defeat in Ludhiana and are indulging in dirty tricks of spreading rumours.”