'Think Sachin Pilot wanted me out': Punjab Congress chief Warring steps down

Ludhiana MP Amrinder Singh Raja Warring on Friday submitted his resignation as Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) president to Rahul Gandhi, marking the culmination of a campaign mounted against him by the Charanjit Singh Channi group seeking his removal.

Speaking to the media after meeting Gandhi in New Delhi on Friday, Warring said that he got the impression that the new AICC General Secretary Sachin Pilot wanted to remove him as the state president. "I have met Pilot only once after he took over for about 15 minutes. In the approximate one month since he took over he has come to Chandigarh only once for about two hours. I think that the new general secretary thought it best to remove me (chutti kar deni chahiye)," he said.

Warring said he briefed Gandhi about his four-and-a-half-year tenure and discussed the strengths of Congress in Punjab in light of the upcoming elections. When asked if he had been asked to resign, he said that this was not a tradition in Congress. "No one has asked me to resign. Rahul ji had appointed me as state president so I have submitted my resignation to him. Now I am a former president. Rahul ji showed great love and affection to me when he met me," said Warring.

Months of factional strife

Warring's resignation marks the end of a tenure of more than four years marked by persistent factional strife in its final few months, with the party yet to name a successor ahead of the 2027 Assembly elections. Warring, who took charge in April 2022 after Navjot Singh Sidhu stepped aside following the party's defeat that year, described himself as a disciplined soldier of the party who will work wherever assigned.

The move follows an organisational assessment by Pilot, appointed AICC in-charge of Punjab on September 5 in place of Bhupesh Baghel. Pilot held consultations with state leaders and submitted a report to the leadership on Warring's functioning and wider factionalism, which sources said cleared the way for the change.

Demands for Warring's removal had come for months from sections of the unit, including former chief minister Channi and Gurdaspur MP Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, and had spilled into public view. In July, the high command had retained Warring, with Channi heading the campaign committee and former minister Vijay Inder Singla the election management committee, an arrangement that did not settle the dissent.

Singla a frontrunner

The All India Congress Committee (AICC) has not issued a formal announcement on the resignation or a replacement. Singla, a Congress Working Committee member, AICC joint treasurer and former Sangrur MP, is widely reported as the frontrunner.

Other names in circulation include Channi, Randhawa, Jalandhar Cantonment MLA Pargat Singh and Amritsar MP Gurjeet Singh Aujla. Party sources say the choice will have to balance regional, community and factional claims, including debate over whether the next state chief should be a Hindu or Sikh face.