Amarinder Singh (Raja Warring) | |
|---|---|
 | |
| President ofPunjab Pradesh Congress Committee | |
| Assumed office 9 April 2022 | |
| Preceded by | Navjot Singh Sidhu |
| Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha | |
| Assumed office 4 June 2024 | |
| Preceded by | Ravneet Singh Bittu |
| Constituency | Ludhiana |
| Minister of Transport Government of Punjab | |
| In office 20 September 2021 – 11 March 2022 | |
| Member of thePunjab Legislative Assembly | |
| In office March 2012 – June 2024 | |
| Preceded by | Manpreet Singh Badal |
| Constituency | Gidderbaha |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1977-11-29)29 November 1977 (age 47) |
| Political party | Indian National Congress |
| Spouse | Amrita Singh |
| Children | 2 |
| Residence(s) | Shri mukstar sahib, Punjab |
Amarinder Singh Brar, (born 29 November 1977)[1] also known asAmarinder Singh Raja Warring, orRaja Warring is an Indian politician.[2] He is aMember of Parliament, Lok Sabha and president ofPunjab Pradesh Congress Committee.[3]
Warring was the president of theIndian Youth Congress, the youth division ofIndian National Congress, from December 2014 to May 2018.[4]
Warring was elected as aMember of Legislative Assembly fromGidderbaha from 2012–2017,[4] districtSri Muktsar Sahib,Punjab to thePunjab Legislative Assembly.[4][5]
In March 2017, he was re-elected as an MLA[4] for the second successive time, after completing his first term from 2012–2017.[6] He served as the Transport Minister in the Punjab government.[7]
Warring contested fromBathinda constituency in the2019 Indian general election againstHarsimrat Kaur Badal but lost the elections by over 20,000 votes.[8]
During the campaign for the2022 Punjab Legislative Assembly election, Warring sang songs and danced during his public meetings. His associates said this was done "to strike a chord with commoners".[7] He won the election. The Aam Aadmi Party gained a strong 79% majority in thesixteenth Punjab Legislative Assembly by winning 92 out of117 seats in the2022 Punjab Legislative Assembly election. MPBhagwant Mann was sworn in asChief Minister on 16 March 2022.[9]
On 9 April 2022, Warring was appointed by the national leadership of Congress as the chief ofCongress in Punjab.[10]
In June, Warring won the2024 Indian general election fromLudhiana Lok Sabha constituency and was elected as aMember of Parliament, Lok Sabha by defeating his nearest competitor,Ravneet Singh Bittu of theBharatiya Janata Party by a margin of 20,942 votes.[11]
Born to Kuldeep Singh and Malkeet Kaur, he lost his parents when he was still a child, and was brought up by his maternal uncles.[12] He is married to Amrita Singh, and he has a son and a daughter. She is a INC candidate in the upcoming state by-polls.[13] He was earlier known as Raja Sotha, with Sotha being the name of his maternal village. Later, he began using the name of his paternal village called Warring.
In June 2022, theShiromani Akali Dal (SAD) demanded a CBI probe, claiming Raja Warring, while serving as Punjab’s Transport Minister, caused heavy losses to the state by awarding overpriced bus body construction contracts. RTI responses suggested that instead of procuring bus bodies locally for ₹8.20–8.40 lakh, contracts were given to a Jaipur-based firm at ₹11.98 lakh per bus, involving a total of 840 buses. This allegedly caused a loss of approximately ₹4 lakh per bus, plus an additional ₹1.51 crore in transportation costs and ₹18 crore in taxes a cumulative estimated loss of around ₹60 crore.[14][15]
According to reports from the Rozana spokesman, the Vigilance Bureau initiated a probe into Raja Warring’s tenure. It flagged irregularities such as issuing numerous route permits to private operators and associates. The Bureau questioned why local bus body fitting—typically costing ₹4–7 lakh—was bypassed in favor of the much higher ₹11.98 lakh per body contracts. This was estimated to have caused a loss of around ₹100 crore to the Punjab Transport Department.[16][17]
He rose into prominence in 2022, when he was made the Punjab Pardesh Congress Committee (PPCC) chief, right before Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra.[18]
After his elevation in the state, during his public interaction across the state and at the PPCC office, he was seen wearing bright-coloured turban. Though Warring at the time denied that his decision to tie turban had any political tone, party insiders said it was a message for his adversaries - on who is the party leader in the state. It is said that he started wearing turban to show his leadership and aim for bigger role in state politics.[19]
In 2024, he made a controversial statement that - "Those leading the (Akal) Takht are people of Sukhbir Badal." Sukhbir Badal at the time was leader of the Shiromani Akali Dal, a party which was erstwhile ally of BJP and in strong opposition to Congress.[20]
In 2025, Punjab Congress president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, in an ongoing tussle within its I.N.D.I.A. alliance parties, demanded resignation of its own partner Aam Adami Party's (AAP) Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann. He said that - "...accountability be fixed in the Majitha hooch tragedy, which involved illegal country liquor distribution and consumption, that took several lives in the Amritsar district." He termed these 27 deaths as 'cold-blooded murders' blaming it on AAP government.[21]
| Party political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | President Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee 2022 – present | Incumbent |
