Rajay Deep
Bathinda
The 37-year-old first-time MLA from Gidderbaha Assembly constituency Amarinder Singh ‘Raja’ Warring has been appointed as the Indian Youth Congress (IYC) President.
The newly appointed IYC president hails from Warring village in district Sri Muktsar Sahib. His appointment, announced on Thursday, has come as a Christmas gift for the Punjab Youth Congress as it’s after 14 years that the Congress high command has selected someone from Punjab for the post.
Earlier, Ambika Soni (1975-77), MS Bitta (1993-96) and Manish Tewari (1998-2000) were the politicians from Punjab who occupied the chair. Now, Warring has replaced Rajiv Satav, an MP from Hingoli (Maharahtra).
Warring stepped in politics in 2000 when the party high command appointed him Block President of Youth Congress from Gidderbaha. Showing his enthusiasm to work for, just after two years Warring was promoted and became the district Muktsar president of the Youth Congress.
It is learnt that he did his apprenticeship under the former Punjab Congress President Jagmeet Singh Brar but once learning the skills, the gap between the two increased with the time, though not ended at an ugly note.
Acknowledging his command over words while delivering speeches, he was then elevated to hold the responsibility of spokesman of the IYC in 2005, which he served till 2008.
He then contested the internal elections to become the president of Punjab Youth Congress which he lost to Ravinder Singh Bittu, grandson of slain Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh. Being the first runner up, he was then given the responsibility of Vice-President of the PYC.
A year later, he was then appointed as General Secretary of the Indian Youth Congress, where he remained till 2012.
Having established his strong enough relations with the then IYC chief Rahul Gandhi, he was allotted party ticket to contest Punjab Vidhan Sabha elections in 2012 from Gidderbaha assembly segment. The ticket, as learnt, was given to him from the youth quota of Rahul Gandhi. And it’s just for picking him as the party face the Congress had annoyed many senior leaders including a former MLA from Gidderbaha Raghbir Pradhan.
Further, hurt over the rejection of his ticket claim a known face of the assembly Sant Singh Brar deserted the Congress and joined the Akali Dal as the party had offered ticket to him from the same constituency.
With Warring being the Congress candidate, the contest at Gidderbaha had become a triangular one with the former Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal also in the fray as the candidate of his newly created political outfit People’s Party of Punjab (PPP).
As Warring was the choice of him, Rahul Gandhi had himself come all the way to Gidderbaha to hold a political rally to muster support for just few days before the elections. Rahul’s gesture gave tremendous boost to Warring’s campaign as those in the party had some kinds of doubts about his stature in the party got the answers with Rahul’s words from the stage.
Securing as many as 50,305 votes, Warring emerged as the winner with also ensuring the SAD rebel Manpreet Singh Badal remain on the third position in the race with just 31,906 votes. Though his victory had little impact on Sant Singh Brar’s career, it exposed the stature of PPP chief Manpreet Singh Badal as it was first ever defeat of Manpreet that too from the constituency, which he was winning for past four consecutive terms (1995, 1997, 2002 and 2007) as Akali candidate.
Being quite vocal in the Vidhan Sabha, Warring within no time started being considered as a vociferous card of the party to play at desired occasions. Just few weeks ago, he was also appointed the party affairs’ in-charge of Bathinda district.
It is also pertinent to mention that the dynamic leader of the Congress had recently landed in a serious trouble for his name being appeared in a drug nexus exposed by Bathinda zone police. A shocked to find himself in the eye of storm Warring was loud enough in claiming his innocence. The matter had even stormed the Punjab Vidhan Sabha after which the inquiry was learnt to be pushed under the carpet without any leakage of the reason.
Besides, he was once made to tender apology to some Hindu organisations for the act (observed as sacrilege) of his supporters during a protest in Muktsar about a year back.
Speaking over phone, an elated IYC President Amarinder Singh ‘Raja’ Warring said, “I will strive to infuse a new lease of life into the organisaiton.”
“I was not a politician but it was the charismatic character of Rahul Gandhi that made me pursue the career in this field of public service,” mentioned Warring.
He also claimed that his immediate priority would be to strengthen the organisation by enrolling youth in large numbers from booth level onwards and expose the dark sides of the BJP-led central government through different programmes.
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