With Amarinder Singh Raja Warring stepping down as Punjab Congress president, the Congress high command is now weighing not just a new organisational head but also a larger electoral strategy for the 2027 Assembly polls.
Party sources say feedback is being gathered from leaders and functionaries at different levels of the Punjab organisation before the final announcement.
Dalits among both Hindus and Sikhs, who form about a third of Punjab’s population, the largest such proportion among all states, have got representation in former chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi, the anti-Warring camp leader who is the party’s campaign committee head. Hindu representation: Whether the Congress should project a Hindu face as state unit president, as the community is about 40 per cent (including all castes) of Sikh-majority Punjab’s population.
The immediate question before the Congress is whether to replace Warring, a Jat Sikh, with a Hindu face, Vijay Inder Singla, or continue with a Jat Sikh at the top of the state unit.
Channi, who is the MP from Jalandhar, had been hoping he’d be declared the CM face of the party, which has so far said it won’t project anyone. He met Rahul in Delhi on Friday and said, “Nobody asked me to resign. Factional issues: Whether the new state Congress president can bring different camps together. This question remains open despite a change coming into effect. Sections of the Congress organisation are favouring a Hindu as state president, arguing that the move could help the party strengthen its appeal among voters in urban and semi-urban Punjab. The counter-argument is that removing Raja Warring and simultaneously moving away from a Jat Sikh president could create another political complication. Against this backdrop, sections of the Jat Sikh leadership within Congress are reportedly arguing that the party should not give up Jat Sikh representation at the top of the organisation at a time when rival political formations are also working on their respective support bases. I had realised for some time what was happening, and when I felt the situation had reached that stage, I voluntarily submitted my resignation… As for (the party’s Punjab in-charge) Sachin Pilot, you should ask him. Perhaps he felt that it was not appropriate for me to continue as president.”
Raja Warring, MP from Ludhiana, has simply said, “Channi has won”, and asserted about himself that he goes by whatever Rahul Gandhi desires.
