Punjab Congress Chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring Refuses to Quit Amid Party Turmoil

Amid growing factionalism in the Punjab Congress, state unit president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring has categorically stated that he will not resign from his post. The Ludhiana MP made the remarks during a media interaction in Bathinda on Monday, alongside AICC general secretary in charge of Punjab, Bhupesh Baghel.

Warring said that if the party high command decides to replace him, he would continue working to strengthen the organisation. "I am not resigning," he asserted, adding that he has worked wholeheartedly for the party over the past four years, and the party won 7 of the 13 Lok Sabha seats in Punjab in the 2024 general elections.

The statement comes against the backdrop of recent public displays of dissent, with supporters of former Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi raising slogans in his favour at party events addressed by Warring. Factionalism surfaced again during Channi's visit to Ferozepur on Monday for the coronation ceremony of the newly elected Municipal Council president Ashok Sachdeva.

The event, organised by former MLA Parminder Singh Pinki, was attended by several senior leaders, including Lok Sabha MP Sher Singh Ghubaya, former minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu, ex-MP Mohammed Sadiq, and former MLAs Raminder Singh Awla, Davinder Ghubaya and Karan Kaur Brar. Notably, photographs of Warring and Leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa were missing from posters at the venue.

The internal friction became public after the Congress leadership retained Warring as Punjab unit president while appointing Channi as chairperson of the campaign committee. Since then, noisy scenes have been witnessed at party programmes, with some supporters of Channi raising slogans when Warring addressed workers.

On Monday, posters appeared in Muktsar targeting Baghel. One poster carried the message "Go Back Baghel," while another urged Rahul Gandhi to listen to Punjabis and bring Channi to lead the Congress government.

Responding to the posters, Baghel attributed them to rival parties. "Such posters show that we are working in the right direction. AAP and BJP are having problems, and it shows that they are scared," he told reporters. In Muktsar, the Congress accused Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann of attempting to disrupt the party's 'Har Booth, Congress Mazboot' campaign.

Baghel and Warring claimed that the disruptions were orchestrated at the behest of the ruling Aam Aadmi Party and Mann. Baghel pointed out that there were no disruptions on the first day of the campaign in Fatehgarh Sahib and Mohali. "Once the government saw that Congress programmes were drawing huge crowds, they started planting their people into the programmes and causing disruptions," he said.

Baghel also defended Warring's leadership, saying Rahul Gandhi had handed him the party's command when it had suffered a severe defeat, going from 80 to 18 seats in the state assembly. He acknowledged that Warring was facing challenges from both outside and inside the party, a sign that the Congress was certain to return to power in Punjab, he claimed.

Baghel further alleged that the AAP had created a "mafia raj" in Punjab and had submerged the state in debt, asserting that only the Congress could remove the AAP and provide better governance. He also warned against internal "sleeping cells" within the party, as cautioned by Rahul Gandhi, and said those who have betrayed the party cannot be spared.

The development highlights the ongoing power struggle within the Punjab Congress, which lost the 2022 assembly elections to the AAP. Warring was appointed as state president in the aftermath of that defeat, with Channi being a prominent rival faction leader. The party's internal discord is seen as a key challenge as it prepares for the next electoral cycle.