Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring is set to be replaced following weeks of infighting in the state unit, party sources said on Wednesday.
Former minister and MP Vijay Inder Singla has emerged as the frontrunner for the post ahead of the 2027 Assembly polls, they said.
The Congress high command has informed Warring of its decision to replace him, following which he has offered to resign, the sources said.
Singla, a Hindu face and a Congress Working Committee member, was appointed the chairperson of the party’s election management and coordination committee on July 1.
Besides Singla, the names of former Olympian and Jalandhar Cantt MLA Pargat Singh, former MLA Rana KP Singh, Raja Sansi MLA Sukhbinder Singh Sarkaria, former chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi and Gurdaspur MP Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa are also doing the rounds for the post.
The announcement of a new Punjab Congress chief is expected soon, party sources said.
The development came days after the issue of appointing a new Punjab Congress chief was discussed by Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, AICC general secretary K C Venugopal and general secretary in-charge of Punjab Affairs Sachin Pilot at a recent meeting.
The party is looking to appoint a leader who could take both the Warring and Channi camps along in the run-up to the 2027 Punjab Assembly polls, sources said.
After the Congress appointed Pilot as general secretary in-charge of Punjab, his immediate challenge was to address factionalism within the Punjab unit ahead of the assembly elections.
The Punjab Congress has been grappling with factionalism since the party leadership decided on July 1 to retain Warring as state unit president and appoint former chief minister Channi as the chairperson of its campaign committee.
A section of leaders led by Channi opposed Warring’s continuation and sought his removal. His supporters have also been demanding that Channi be declared the party’s chief ministerial face for the 2027 polls.
Visits to Punjab by former general secretary in-charge of Punjab affairs and former Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel failed to bring an apparent truce between the two factions, with differences becoming increasingly visible at party programmes.
Baghel’s visits to Punjab coincided with the intensification of factionalism between the Channi and Warring camps.
During the Congress’ ‘Har Booth, Congress Mazboot’ campaign from July 31 to August 8, Channi’s supporters raised slogans of “Channi lyao, Punjab bachao” (bring Channi, save Punjab), while verbal clashes between supporters of Channi and Warring were reported at several meetings.
The internal rift has added to the perception that the Congress is struggling to put its house in order ahead of the assembly polls.
This is not the first time that the Punjab Congress has faced factionalism. In 2021, months before the assembly polls, the party removed Amarinder Singh as chief minister following a prolonged tussle with party leader Navjot Singh Sidhu.
Channi was subsequently picked as chief minister. He lost from both Chamkaur Sahib and Bhadaur Assembly seats in the 2022 Assembly polls.
The Congress won just 18 seats in the 2022 Assembly polls, a sharp decline from the 77 seats it had won in 2017.