Congress Names Pargat Singh Punjab Chief, Aradhana Misra UP Chief Ahead of 2027 Polls

On Friday evening, Congress replaced its state chiefs in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh. Both states hold assembly elections in 2027. AICC general secretary KC Venugopal issued notifications making Jalandhar Cantonment MLA and former India hockey captain Pargat Singh the head of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee, and Rampur Khas MLA Aradhana Misra "Mona" the president of the Uttar Pradesh unit. Both appointments take effect immediately.

Punjab: ending a long-running feud

The Punjab change matters more politically. Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, the Ludhiana MP who had led the state unit since 2022, resigned to Rahul Gandhi on Friday. His exit follows months of factional fighting, mainly between his camp and supporters of former chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi. Other senior leaders, including Gurdaspur MP Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, had also pushed for new leadership.

In July, the high command tried a compromise. It kept Warring as state chief, made Channi head of the campaign committee and put Vijay Inder Singla in charge of election management. The infighting continued anyway. After Sachin Pilot took over as AICC in-charge of Punjab in early September, he consulted leaders across the camps and sent the leadership his assessment, which was followed by the change.

Singla had been widely tipped for the post until Thursday. The party chose Pargat Singh instead. He played in two Olympics as India's hockey captain, first won Jalandhar Cantt for the Shiromani Akali Dal in 2012, and moved to Congress before the 2017 election. He later served as a minister in Channi's government. He has challenged his own party's leaders in the past, and his main job now is to bring together the factions that cost Warring his post, with the election only months away.

Warring congratulated his successor. The party thanked him for his work and said the existing working presidents and election-committee heads in Punjab would stay on.

Uttar Pradesh: a wider leadership team

In Uttar Pradesh, Misra replaces Ajay Rai. She is a three-time MLA, the daughter of Rajya Sabha MP Pramod Tiwari, and has led the Congress Legislature Party in the state assembly. The party has given her a broader team. Saharanpur MP Imran Masood becomes working president, Devinder Nishad and Alok Prasad are senior vice-presidents, and Chaudhary Virendra Singh takes over as leader of the legislature party.

Misra thanked the central leadership and said Congress would honour its alliance commitments in the 2027 contest. She said she was confident that an INDIA bloc government would be formed in the state. That points to a continued partnership with the Samajwadi Party, which leads the opposition in Uttar Pradesh.

Why the timing matters

The two-state change shows Congress moving into campaign mode, with very different problems in each state. In Punjab, where it is the main challenger to the ruling Aam Aadmi Party, it needs to stop internal feuds from taking over the campaign. In Uttar Pradesh, after gaining seats there in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, its aim is to grow its organisation and secure a better seat-sharing deal within the alliance.

This is an original summary based on public reporting. See our editorial policy for how we source, write, and correct our stories.