Amrinder Singh Warring rocks Punjab Cong boat, says replacing Capt in 2021 ‘did not pay off’

Chandigarh: Signs of unease within the Punjab Congress surfaced again on Monday, with Punjab Congress president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring questioning the party's decision to replace former chief minister Amarinder Singh with the party's Dalit face Charanjit Singh Channi ahead of the 2022 Punjab assembly elections, saying the move did not yield the expected results.Speaking in an interview, Warring said although there was public anger against Amarinder Singh and he himself had opposed the former chief minister, changing the leadership just months before the elections did not prove beneficial for the party.The Congress replaced Amarinder Singh with Channi in Sept 2021 in a major political reshuffle. Channi became Punjab's first Dalit chief minister. However, the Congress suffered a major defeat in the 2022 assembly elections, with Bhagwant Mann-led Aam Aadmi Party securing a landslide victory by winning 92 of the 117 assembly seats, while the Congress was reduced to 18 seats. Channi himself lost both the assembly constituencies from which he contested.Referring to the electoral outcome, Warring said Channi belonged to the Malwa region and was also a Dalit leader, but the party still failed to register the expected electoral gains. He claimed that the Congress witnessed a decline in support among Jat Sikhs, Hindus and Dalits, and alleged that the party's Dalit vote share also dropped significantly.At the same time, Warring maintained the decision to appoint Channi as chief minister was not taken solely to attract Dalit votes. According to him, Congress senior functionary Rahul Gandhi wanted to send a message of social justice through the decision rather than pursue a purely electoral calculation.