Who is BJP MP Ashok Mittal Who Runs LPU, And Who Switched From AAP?
Ashok Mittal & LPU: BJP MP who runs LPU: Ashok Mittal’s rise from a sweet-shop family to the Rajya Sabha, the ED searches, the AAP to BJP switch and reactions to the LPU unrest.
North Desk Correspondent
Chandigarh, September 28
Ashok Mittal & LPU: As violence and an alleged hostel rape case shake Lovely Professional University in Jalandhar in Punjab, attention has turned to who runs it. Founder-Chancellor Ashok Mittal is a Rajya Sabha MP who was with AAP until April 2026 and is now with the BJP. Here is his background, the ED searches, and the political reactions so far.
Lovely Professional University (LPU) is closed for 10 days after two nights of arson, vandalism and clashes with police. As Punjab’s political parties trade charges over law and order, one question keeps surfacing: who runs the university?
The answer is Dr Ashok Kumar Mittal, its Founder-Chancellor and a Rajya Sabha member from Punjab. He joined the BJP in April, days after an ED raid on his premises, and weeks after AAP made him its Deputy Leader in the Rajya Sabha. This report sets out the record on him, the university and the reactions. No official has linked his party affiliation to the events on campus, and nothing in this report suggests such a link.
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What has happened at LPU
Ashok Mittal & LPU: Police have registered an FIR against an unidentified person and formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT). LPU has denied that the alleged incident took place on campus. The FIR relates to an alleged sexual assault of a female student at Girls Hostel-3. Police are examining CCTV footage, forensic evidence and phone data. The university called the claims “false, baseless and fabricated rumours.”
Jalandhar Range DIG Naveen Singla said students had also raised concerns over the death by suicide of a Telangana student at LPU around 15 days ago. Police have opened a separate inquiry into that death.
The unrest turned violent. Three police vehicles and a campus building were set on fire during Sunday’s violence. LPU suspended regular classes for 10 days and postponed mid-term examinations until further notice. The protest also blocked the national highway for more than 15 hours. Internet services were suspended in and around the campus.
Among the protesters’ demands was that Mittal come and meet them and give assurances on their demands.
Ashok Mittal & LPU: Who runs LPU
LPU was established under the Lovely Professional University Act, 2005 and began operations in 2006. It was established by the Lovely International Trust. Mittal is Founder-Chancellor. His wife, Dr Rashmi Mittal, is Pro-Chancellor, and Prof Jaspal Singh Sandhu is Vice-Chancellor. LPU’s website describes the university as a tribute to Mittal’s late father, Baldev Raj Mittal, who founded the Lovely Group. The university says it houses about 35,000 students from 28 states and over 50 countries.
The trust’s trustees and the Act’s provisions on state oversight of student safety have not been publicly examined in reporting so far. North Desk has sought both.
Ashok Mittal’s background
Ashok Mittal & LPU: Ashok Mittal, 62, was born in Jalandhar Cantonment into a business family with roots in Rajasthan. He is a law graduate of Guru Nanak Dev University. He began in the family sweets business, the Lovely Sweets brand founded by his father, and worked with his brothers as it diversified into education, autos and other ventures.
He entered the Rajya Sabha in 2022 on an AAP ticket. On April 2, 2026, AAP appointed him its Deputy Leader in the Rajya Sabha, replacing Raghav Chadha.
The ED searches and the switch
Ashok Mittal & LPU: On April 15, ED teams from Delhi searched premises of the Lovely Group in Jalandhar and Phagwara, including LPU, Lovely Autos, Lovely Sweets and the Lovely Distance Education Centre, in connection with alleged FEMA violations. Premises linked to his brothers Ramesh Mittal and Naresh Mittal were also searched. The searches ended on April 18. The agency had not disclosed particulars of the charges. Reports noted that searches by themselves imply no finding of wrongdoing.
CM Bhagwant Mann and other AAP leaders called the operation politically motivated and a misuse of central agencies. BJP leaders defended the action.
On April 24, Mittal joined the BJP at a press conference in Delhi where Raghav Chadha announced the move, along with Sandeep Pathak. Six other AAP Rajya Sabha members joined with him, and the Chairman accepted the merger of the seven members with the BJP.
Earlier controversies
In August 2022, when Mittal was an AAP MP, The Tribune reported that LPU was under the scanner over alleged occupation of panchayat land. LPU’s Vice-President Aman Mittal said the land was in the possession of a gurdwara and that naming LPU was a clerical mistake. Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring asked Mann whether the government’s anti-encroachment drive applied equally to political opponents.
The Phagwara campus has also seen student unrest before, including a 2009 fee-hike rampage and a September 2022 protest after a first-year student’s death by suicide, when an FIR was later registered against a professor named in the student’s note. In that episode, students alleged a second suicide on campus that the administration disputed.
Political reactions so far
Ashok Mittal & LPU: CM Mann has ordered strict action against those responsible and as directed, DGP Gaurav Yadav visited the campus to assess the situation and take necessary steps.
Gaurav Yadav has told media that action will be taken as per the law and no one including from the university management will be spared if they are found involved.
Punjab BJP spokesperson Pritpal Singh Baliawal said what is happening at LPU is a serious law-and-order failure in Punjab and raises questions about the AAP government’s handling of the situation.
SAD leader Harsimrat Kaur Badal condemned what police called a “mild” lathicharge, said visuals show youth, especially girls, being hit and dragged, and said the police report to the Chief Minister. Police describe their action as mild.
Punjab Congress chief Warring called the violence a sign of failed law and order and said no AAP government representative had met the students.
Pritpal Singh Baliawal has asked who the outsiders were, said to have entered the campus with weapons or communication equipment, who sent them and why. The statement also asks whether the unrest was deliberately provoked and whether it connects to Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s September 30 programme, and demands an independent investigation. Shah is due to address the concluding programme of the BJP’s anti-drug campaign in Jalandhar that day.
No police or university statement found in reports reviewed by North Desk confirms outsiders with weapons or any deliberate provocation. Special DGP (Law and Order) Parveen Kumar Sinha said police are examining the reasons behind the unrest at LPU and Chitkara University, and whether the two are linked.
(This is a developing story. North Desk will update as the SIT probe, the DGP’s briefing and any statement from the university or its chancellor come in.)
ALSO: LPU Protest Explained: FIR, Suicide Claim, Chitkara Link–10 Questions
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