Punjab Congress Chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring Resigns Ahead Of 2027 Polls: Who Could Replace Him?

Punjab Congress chief Raja Warring resigns amid factional differences months before the 2027 Assembly polls. Here are the names in contention to replace him.

New Delhi: Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring has stepped down from his position after several months of disagreements among different groups within the party in the state. Warring has handed in his resignation to the Congress general secretary, K C Venugopal, and the party is likely to reveal his replacement within the next 24 to 48 hours.

The resignation happens several months before the 2027 Punjab Assembly elections, as the Congress party aims to reorganize its structure in the state and deal with conflicts between different groups within the party. Warring later went back to his Chandigarh home after he stopped being the leader of the state Congress.

Former minister Vijay Inder Singla is now among the key figures being thought about for the position. Jalandhar Cantonment MLA Pargat Singh and Gurdaspur MP Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa are also competing, while former Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi and other senior leaders have been part of talks about replacing Warring.

Warring has resigned after several months of disagreements within the Punjab Congress, especially between his group and the leaders who support Charanjit Singh Channi. The party had tried before to handle the different groups by keeping Warring as the state president and also making Channi the head of the Congress campaign committee. However, the arrangement did not fix the issues inside the state unit.

Some members of the Punjab Congress leadership wanted Warring to step down, and these differences became more noticeable in the party's events and meetings. The situation was looked into again after Sachin Pilot was given the role of in-charge for the Punjab Congress. The pilot met with the leaders of the party and the workers first, then wrote a report for the top command about how the state unit was working and the disagreements happening inside it.

Senior Congress leaders like Rahul Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge, K C Venugopal, and Pilot then talked about the current situation in Punjab. The group in charge of the party finally told Warring that they wanted to change the leader of the state.

The Congress is looking at different names for the Punjab president position, and Vijay Inder Singla is one of the main people being considered. Singla, who used to be a minister and a member of parliament, is part of the Congress Working Committee. In July, he was also named as the chairperson of the Congress election management and coordination committee.

Pargat Singh and Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa are some of the other names that are being looked at. Sukhbinder Singh Sarkaria and Charanjit Singh Channi have also been part of talks about who will be the next leader of the state. The Congress is likely to make a final decision soon as it gets ready for the 2027 Assembly elections and works to improve its structure within the state.

The change in leadership happens while the Congress party in Punjab faces a bigger problem that has been going on for a longer time. Inside the party, there have been disagreements in the past that have caused issues with how the party is organized before elections.

In 2021, several months ahead of the Assembly elections, the Congress party removed Amarinder Singh from his position as chief minister after a long disagreement between Navjot Singh Sidhu and the top leaders of the state. Channi was subsequently made chief minister.

In the 2022 Assembly elections, the Congress party secured 18 seats, which is a significant decrease compared to the 77 seats they won in 2017. Warring became the president of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee in April 2022, right after the party lost the 2022 elections. His resignation now means the Congress is getting ready for another change in leadership as the state moves toward the 2027 elections.