Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring is set to be replaced following weeks of infighting in the state unit, people familiar with the development said on Wednesday night.

The Congress high command has informed Warring of its decision to replace him following which he has offered to resign, they added. The party is expected to announce his successor shortly, with former cabinet minister Vijay Inder Singla emerging as the frontrunner. Jalandhar Cantonment MLA and former Indian hockey captain Pargat Singh, along with Gurdaspur MP Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, are also in contention for the top post.

Warring, who became the Ludhiana MP in 2024, had taken charge of the state Congress unit in April 2022, just after a divided Congress faced a massive drubbing from the Aam Aadmi Party.

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The leadership shake-up comes as infighting threatens to derail the Congress’s campaign ahead of high-stakes Punjab assembly elections due early next year. The issue (appointment of a new state unit chief) was discussed by Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, AICC general secretary K C Venugopal and newly appointed Punjab affairs in-charge Sachin Pilot at a recent meeting.

With only months left to challenge the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the central leadership has been forced to intervene decisively to arrest months of public feuding, boycotts, and parallel power centres that have crippled the functioning of the state unit and demoralising cadres.

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The turmoil escalated after July 1, when the central leadership initially chose to retain Warring as head of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC). The decision triggered an immediate retaliation from a rival faction led by Jalandhar MP and former chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi.

For nearly three months, leaders aligned with Channi boycotted official state committee programs and organised parallel outreach drives. The bad blood spilled into the public domain during an August grassroots mobilisation drive, where rival cadres clashed and shouted slogans against one another.

As the infighting peaked, the party’s then Punjab in-charge Bhupesh Baghel faced a cold shoulder from dissenters for rallying behind Warring. Baghel was replaced on September 5 with Pilot.

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The feuding factions of the state unit has put up a united show during the first state outing of Pilot on September 15 when he led a party protest against the AAP government over the alleged suicide of a Dalit man in Sangrur after his public confrontation with finance minister Harpal Singh Cheema. The event saw Warring and Channi sharing stage after months and even conversing with each other

The party is looking to appoint a leader who could take both Warring and Channi camps along, people in know of the matter said.