Congress MP Amrinder Singh Raja Warring on Thursday hit back at Union Minister Ravneet Singh Bittu over his “use and throw” remarks targeting Rahul Gandhi, telling his former party colleague that he was “messing with the wrong guy” as their continuing political feud intensified.
Warring defended Gandhi and sought to turn Bittu's criticism back on the Union minister by referring to his long association with the Congress before he switched to the BJP ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Warring hits back
The Congress leader questioned Bittu's attack on Gandhi and argued that the Union minister owed much of his political career to opportunities he received while in the Congress.
Bittu had represented Anandpur Sahib in the Lok Sabha in 2009 before winning Ludhiana in 2014 and 2019 as a Congress candidate. He joined the BJP shortly before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and contested from Ludhiana, where he was defeated by Warring.
Despite the Lok Sabha defeat, Bittu subsequently entered the Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan and joined the Union government as a Minister of State.
Warring invoked that political history while responding to Bittu's latest comments and accused him of forgetting the support he received during his years in the Congress.
Bittu targets Rahul
The fresh exchange followed Bittu's criticism of Rahul Gandhi, in which the BJP leader used a “use and throw” analogy to attack the Congress leader's handling of party colleagues.
Bittu's remarks were political criticism of Gandhi and the Congress leadership. Warring responded by questioning Bittu's credibility in attacking a party and leadership under which he had served as a three-term Lok Sabha MP.
The two Punjab politicians have repeatedly traded personal and political accusations since Bittu left the Congress for the BJP.
Their rivalry also acquired an electoral dimension in 2024 when they contested directly against each other from Ludhiana. Warring defeated Bittu in that contest.
Old rivalry resurfaces
The latest confrontation follows another bitter exchange earlier this year involving Bittu and Gandhi.
In February, Gandhi called Bittu his “traitor friend” during an encounter outside Parliament, referring to the Union minister's departure from the Congress. Bittu responded by calling Gandhi an “enemy of the nation” and later levelled further allegations against him.
At the time, Warring strongly defended Gandhi and reminded Bittu that the Congress had fielded him in three successive Lok Sabha elections — from Anandpur Sahib in 2009 and Ludhiana in 2014 and 2019. Bittu's criticism of Gandhi and the Congress leadership, Warring argued, had to be viewed against his own political trajectory within the party.
The BJP and Congress had sharply criticised each other over that episode, turning what began as a verbal exchange outside Parliament into a wider political controversy.
Punjab politics in focus
Thursday's exchange comes amid heightened political activity within the Punjab Congress and ahead of the state's next Assembly election.
Warring's own position in the state Congress has recently been the subject of political speculation, with reports that the party leadership is considering organisational changes in Punjab.
Against that backdrop, the renewed Warring-Bittu confrontation combines a personal political rivalry with the wider Congress-BJP contest in Punjab. Bittu's departure from the Congress, his subsequent appointment as a Union minister and his continuing attacks on Gandhi have repeatedly drawn sharp responses from his former colleagues.
Warring's “messing with the wrong guy” response on Thursday was the latest such intervention, with the Congress leader again using Bittu's years in the party to counter his criticism of Gandhi.