Chandigarh: Bittu and Danny, the two young Lok Sabha candidates handpicked by AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi to contest the forthcoming elections, have become an embarrassment to the party in Punjab.




Twenty-nine-year-old Ravneet Singh Bittu, grandson of former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh and the party's candidate in the Anandpur Sahib Lok Sabha constituency, has never been to college. Bittu is facing the Akali Dal's Diljeet Singh Cheema, who has an MBBS degree and has been a practising doctor for more than 10 years.


A political novice, Bittu's only qualification is his proximity to Rahul Gandhi, and this does not seem to be helping him. Though his candidature was preferred over many senior Congress leaders, he has become an embarrassment to the party as the Akalis, as part of their election ploy, have decided to "start a literacy movement in the constituency".


Cheema said the movement, called 'Jago Bittu school chalo', would target school dropouts. He said his party proposed to make his Congress rival a model for the movement, adding that it was surprising that Rahul Gandhi had picked a school dropout as the new youth icon in the constituency.


He said he would appeal to his voters to tell Bittu to first "complete his school and college education, instead of going to Parliament".


The second Congress candidate handpicked by Rahul is Sukhvinder Singh Danny, who is contesting from the Faridkot Lok Sabha seat. The son of a former Punjab cabinet minister Sardool Singh, Danny is making things awkward for party workers after his selection on compassionate grounds as a police inspector was cancelled for producing the "wrong certificate".


Danny faces Akali Dal nominee Paramjit Kaur Gulshan, who earlier represented the Bathinda Lok Sabha seat. In her campaign, she has often highlighted how her rival earlier "chose to join the police through fraudulent means". She said it was surprising that the Congress was trying to send "such elements to Parliament".

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