Chandigarh: With Punjab Assembly elections roughly six months away, the Congress party witnessed a significant development on Monday as state unit president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring resigned from his post. Congress sources confirmed the development, adding that a new Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) chief is likely to be named within the next 24 to 48 hours.
Former minister Vijay Inder Singla is being widely tipped as the front-runner for the post. Jalandhar Cantonment MLA and former national hockey captain Pargat Singh, and Gurdaspur MP Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, are also reportedly under consideration.
Warring, elected to the Lok Sabha from Ludhiana in 2024, had taken charge as PCC president in April 2022, at a time when the Punjab Congress was beset by internal differences and the party suffered a heavy defeat at the hands of the Aam Aadmi Party. Factional tensions within the state unit persisted in the years that followed and have become more visible in recent months.
While Warring is seen as leading one faction, another group within the party has rallied around former Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi. The divisions trace back to the internal rebellion led by Navjot Singh Sidhu ahead of the 2022 elections, which led the Congress to replace then Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh, after which Channi briefly served in the post. Sidhu is no longer with the party, but the old factional rivalries have resurfaced. The rifts grew sharper after the Congress high command decided in July to retain Warring as PCC chief, a move some party leaders attributed to the backing of then Punjab affairs in-charge Bhupesh Baghel.
Punjab is due to go to the polls in early 2027, with the Congress set to challenge the ruling Aam Aadmi Party government led by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann. Separately, talks on a possible alliance between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Shiromani Akali Dal are ongoing, while the Akali Dal faction associated with jailed MP Amritpal Singh is also expected to contest the elections.