Amarinder Singh Raja Warring arrived in Delhi on Friday and personally submitted his resignation as Congress’ Punjab unit chief to Rahul Gandhi. Warring said he had a open and detailed discussion about the situation in Punjab and the challenges before the Congress ahead of the state polls early next year.
The leadership change comes amid reports of factional differences within the state Congress unit, with some senior leaders seeking a change in the state leadership.
Warring, a Lok Sabha MP from Ludhiana, had led the state Congress during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, in which the party won seven of the state’s 13 seats.
The outgoing Punjab chief said he was not forced to resign. “I was not asked to resign,” he underscored.
Warring’s prospective successor is reported to be a prominent Hindu face, Vijay Inder Singla, a member of the Congress Working Committee, a former state Education and PWD Minister and a former MP from Sangrur. He’s considered close to Rahul Gandhi.
He said he decided to submit his resignation to Rahul Gandhi because he was the person who had appointed him as Punjab Congress chief, adding he was not holding the post because of anyone’s favour.
“Reaching the top is an achievement, but nobody can remain at the top forever,” Warring, who took charge as Punjab Congress chief in April 2022, said.
On his relationship with the Congress leadership, Warring said he listens to his own conscience and has already shared everything with his leader, Rahul Gandhi.
He said whatever opportunity or support he received in the Congress party came from Rahul Gandhi and not from any other individual.
The high command had announced on July 1 that Warring would continue as state president, with Charanjit Singh Channi, a former Punjab chief minister, entrusted with leading the campaign committee.
The arrangement did not satisfy Channi, nor did the leader of the Congress Legislature Party, Partap Singh Bajwa, agree with it.
Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, who belongs to the dominant Jat Sikh community like Raja Warring, was seen backing Channi, a Dalit.
Vijay Inder Singla, a prominent Hindu face from the Bania trader community who was appointed head of the election management committee, was also not on board, sources said at the time. His name was at the top of the list in June-July too before the party chose to retain Warring.
