New Delhi:
Raja is finally off the throne, as the Congress tries to put its Punjab house in order six months ahead of state elections. Amarinder Singh Raja Warring has resigned as Punjab Congress president, sources in New Delhi said on Wednesday night. The party is expected to name his successor in the next 24-48 hours. Former minister Vijay Inder Singla, Jalandhar Cantonment MLA and former hockey captain Pargat Singh, and Gurdaspur MP Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa are in the race to replace him, NDTV has learnt.
Warring, who became the Ludhiana MP in 2024, had taken charge of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee in April 2022, just after a deeply fractious Punjab Congress faced a massive drubbing from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). The fractiousness never really subsided; it peaked in recent months.
Warring was seen as the face of one faction. The other group was rallying behind Charanjit Singh Channi, who served as chief minister briefly when the Congress removed Captain Amarinder Singh before the 2022 loss following a rebellion led by Navjot Singh Sidhu. Sidhu is long gone from the party, but the pre-2022 infighting appeared to be playing out again this time, especially after the party chose to stick with Raja Warring in July. The party’s then central in-charge Bhupesh Baghel was seen as partisan towards Warring.
As rival shows of strength made headlines first in Punjab and then nationally, the party’s central leadership chose to make some moves by the time September arrived. Bhupesh Baghel was replaced in the first week of the month; Raja Warring resigned on its last day.
On September 5, the Congress high command appointed Sachin Pilot as the party’s Punjab in-charge, replacing former Chhattisgarh chief minister Baghel, who had held the Punjab post since early 2025. Sachin Pilot, a former deputy chief minister of Rajasthan and a national general secretary of the party, had been in charge of Chhattisgarh since December 2023. A younger face, seen as close to Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi, Pilot’s first task was a protest rally where all factions put up a united front.
The Warring question remained. The high command had announced on July 1 that Warring would continue as state president, with Channi 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.
Pargat Singh, also seen as the likely next chief, was seen as neutral.
When Pilot landed in Chandigarh, leaders across factions welcomed him. “Heartfelt thanks to the Congress Party High Command for this important decision,” Channi wrote on X. Warring welcomed Pilot and thanked Baghel for his guidance.
Assembly elections in Punjab are due in early 2027. The Congress faces the AAP government led by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann. A potential alliance between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) remains in the works, and the Akali Dal (Waris Punjab De) of jailed MP Amritpal Singh is in the fray as well.
To mark the start of the Congress campaign, Rahul Gandhi is scheduled to undertake a bus tour across the state.
