The Congress on Friday appointed former India hockey captain and Jalandhar Cantonment MLA Pargat Singh (61) as the new president of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC), replacing Amarinder Singh Raja Warring as the party begins preparations for the Punjab assembly elections due early next year.
The appointment followed days of hectic consultations within the party and came against the backdrop of differences among senior Punjab Congress leaders. Congress general secretary and Punjab affairs in-charge Sachin Pilot held consultations with senior leaders in the state before submitting his report to the party high command. Several senior Congress leaders in Punjab are seen as potential contenders for the chief ministerial post, including leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa, Jalandhar MP and former chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi and Gurdaspur MP and former deputy chief minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa. His rise within the Congress has been relatively rapid.
Warring, who had headed the state unit since April 2022, met Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi on Friday and submitted his resignation. In 2021, then PPCC president Navjot Singh Sidhu appointed him general secretary (organisation) of the state unit. Pargat subsequently served as a cabinet minister in the Charanjit Singh Channi government from September 2021 until March 2022.
Congratulating Pargat on his appointment, Sachin Pilot said he hoped the new PPCC president would strengthen the party organisation and raise issues concerning the people of Punjab. “I hope that under your leadership, the party will perform exceptionally well in the forthcoming Assembly elections,” Pilot said, adding that Pargat would have to take the ideas and vision of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi to the people.
