'Charanjit Channi Saheb Has Won': Raja Warring Meets Rahul Gandhi After Exit As Punjab Congress Chief

Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, who quit this week as Punjab Congress chief amid raging factionalism, on Friday met Rahul Gandhi and later said that Sachin Pilot, the party's state affairs in-charge, wanted him to step down. Insisting, however, that no one expressly had asked him to resign, Warring was blunt about what actually caused his exit. "Channi saheb has won," he said, referring to former chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi, who led the camp opposed to his continuance as state unit president.

"Sachin ji wanted me to leave," Warring further said, speaking to news agency PTI in Delhi.

He was speaking before Pargat Singh, considered part of the anti-Warring camp for the most part, was announced as his replacement.

On his meeting with Rahul Gandhi, Warring said, "A lot of personal and family matters were discussed with Rahul Gandhi, along with Punjab politics, and the discussions were positive."

Raja Warring, MP from Ludhiana, resigned as Punjab Congress president on September 30, about six months before the 2027 Assembly elections, ending a tenure that began in April 2022 and was marked in recent months by open rivalry between his camp and Channi's.

"I knew what was happening. I have been in politics for a long time and I understand why and what is happening," Warring said.

"When I felt that such a situation had come, I gave up my position," he added.

Asked whether internal party feedback had played a role, Warring said, "The internal feedback of the party has been there for four and a half years." He added that Pilot "may have given new feedback to the party".

Who Were In The Race?

Former central minister Vijay Inder Singla, a Hindu face from the Bania community who heads the party's election management committee, had emerged as a prominent contender. Jalandhar Cantonment MLA and former hockey captain Pargat Singh was eventually chosen, though former deputy chief minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, Rana KP Singh and Sukhbinder Singh Sarkaria were the other Jat Sikh names being discussed.

The choice before the high command was whether to replace Warring, a Jat Sikh, with a Hindu face or retain a Jat Sikh at the top of the state unit.

Channi, who comes from the Dalit community, is seen as the most prominent face of the party and is the head of the campaign committee, a position he got in July, though he remained dissatisfied as long as Warring remained president. He has not reacted yet to Warring's exit, but has been speaking of "Channi sarkar", his brief stint as CM before the 2022 loss, on his social media handles.

A Lot Changed Amid Infighting

• On July 1, when the high command announced that Warring would continue as state president, Congress Legislature Party leader Partap Singh Bajwa also did not agree with it. Randhawa was seen backing Channi.
• On September 5, the party appointed Pilot as Punjab in-charge, replacing former Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel, who had held the post since early 2025 and was seen as partisan towards Warring.
• On September 15, Channi and Warring shared a stage for the first time in nearly three months at a Congress protest in Chandigarh led by Pilot, where the two were seen shaking hands.
• At the same event, Bajwa said the party would contest the elections without projecting a chief ministerial face.
• On September 30, Warring resigned. Two days later, Pargat Singh was named as the new chief.

What Comes Next

Assembly elections in Punjab are due in early 2027. The Congress faces the Aam Aadmi Party government led by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann. A potential alliance between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Shiromani Akali Dal remains in the works, and the Akali Dal (Waris Punjab De) of jailed MP Amritpal Singh is also in the fray.

Rahul Gandhi is scheduled to undertake a bus tour across the state to mark the start of the Congress campaign, a key event before which the party is keen to quell, or at least paper over, fissures that are no secret.