New Punjab Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring: 44-year-old combative leader, 3-time MLA & ex-minister

Raja Warring managed to win his Gidderbaha seat in the election for the third consecutive time.

A combative leader, Raja Warring had been the president of the Youth Congress during 2014-2018. As the new PPCC chief, he replaces cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu, who had resigned close on the heels of the election results last month after Gandhi asked the Congress unit chiefs of all five election-bound states to step down following the party’s comprehensive electoral debacle.

Raja Warring is another Congress leader who began as a student politician. He learnt his initial political lessons from Congress leaders Randeep Surjewala and Jagmeet Brar, who is now in the Shiromani Akali Dal.

Warring, who had lost his parents at an early age, won praises from the close aides of top Congress leader Rahul Gandhi during the 2009 Lok Sabha elections while working in Uttar Pradesh.

It helped Raja Warring in getting the party ticket from Gidderbaha against a heavyweight rival like Manpreet Singh Badal, who had then floated his own outfit, in the 2012 Assembly polls. Former Congress chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh had then wanted to give the party ticket to Raghubir Pardhan from Gidderbaha. Not only Capt Amarinder, his political guru Jagmeet Brar too had not backed Raja Warring during the campaign. But Rahul Gandhi campaigned for him and he managed to beat Manpreet with a significant margin.

Raja Warring won comfortably from Gidderbaha in the 2017 Assembly polls again. But, despite winning the election for the second time in a row, he could not secure a place in the then Amarinder Singh Cabinet as he was never close to the latter. Manpreet Badal, who had then joined the Congress, became the finance minister though.

The tussle between Raja Warring and Manpreet could never end. Manpreet also had access to Rahul Gandhi and his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. It was humiliating for Raja Warring to remain out of Cabinet despite his spectacular start in Punjab politics by defeating Manpreet. After the Congress leadership ousted Capt Amarinder and brought in Channi to replace him as the CM in September last year, Raja Warring was inducted as the transport minister into the new Cabinet.