Ludhiana. The run‑up to Punjab’s Assembly polls has turned increasingly volatile, with opposition figures taking to the streets to challenge the ruling AAP. On Saturday, former Union Minister and BJP heavyweight Ravneet Singh Bittu disrupted Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s appearance at Punjab Agricultural University, prompting police to detain him.
Show of dissent at the Kisan Mela
Chief Minister Mann had arrived at the university to inaugurate a farmers’ fair, known locally as a “Kisan Mela.” As his convoy prepared to depart, Bittu, flanked by party workers, stepped forward holding a bottle of liquor and a ripe tomato. He shouted that the bottle was being returned to the chief minister and used the tomato as a symbolic rebuke of the government’s handling of Punjab’s drug crisis.
Allegations and reciprocal accusations
During the brief interruption, Bittu accused Mann of turning a blind eye to the state’s narcotics problem and vowed that the BJP would keep pressing the issue. He also claimed that AAP activists had previously hurled eggs at his convoy near Batala, a charge the ruling party has not confirmed.
Link to the Batala episode
According to Bittu, the Batala incident occurred on Friday while he was traveling to Pathankot for the BJP’s “Nasha Mukt Punjab Yatra” (Drug‑Free Punjab March). He said three individuals were apprehended by his security team after throwing eggs, and that police later restored order at the scene.
“If AAP supporters can protest against our marches, we have an equal right to demonstrate against the government in a democratic manner,” Bittu told reporters before being escorted away.
Following his arrest, Bittu reiterated the party’s commitment to “raise the drug issue repeatedly” and to organize “peaceful, democratic protests outside the chief minister’s events and government offices whenever necessary.”
