Lok Sabha Elections 2019: Congress pins hopes on this Amrinder Singh Raja Warring in Bathinda - Hindustan Times
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Lok Sabha Elections 2019: Congress pins hopes on this Amrinder Singh Raja Warring in Bathinda

Hindustan Times, Bathinda | ByVishal Joshi
Apr 23, 2019 02:59 PM IST

The party needed an aggressive leader to fight the Badals on their turf after both finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal and former chief parliamentary secretary Navjot Kaur Sidhu refused to contest and Warring fitted the bill.

Gidderbaha MLA Amrinder Singh Raja Warring is the Congress choice to challenge Akalis in Bathinda, a predominantly rural seat of the Malwa region from where Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal is the sitting MP.

Amrinder Singh Raja(HT)
Amrinder Singh Raja(HT)

The party needed an aggressive leader to fight the Badals on their turf after both finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal and former chief parliamentary secretary Navjot Kaur Sidhu refused to contest and Warring fitted the bill.

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The young leader, who built his political career by taking on the Badals, has shown the big fight temperament in the past. He got his first break when he defeated Manpreet, who was then the People’s Party of Punjab (PPP) chief, to win the prestigious assembly seat in the 2012 state polls.

On getting elected, the firebrand leader held a series of protests against the Badal family, barging into then chief minister Parkash Singh Badal’s sangat darshan programme in his constituency at one stage and police force had to be deployed to keep him at bay. He knows the art of staying in the limelight, but gets carried away often and lands into controversies for shooting off his mouth.

An active social-media user, Warring remains on a perpetual offensive mode against the Badals in and outside the assembly. In September 2016, Warring was instrumental in organising an overnight sit-in at Punjab Vidhan Sabha against the then Akali government.

Considered close to Congress president Rahul Gandhi, Warring was appointed national president of the Youth Congress, the youth wing of the party, in 2014. With no political family background, he has quickly climbed up the ladder due to his in-your-face style of politics and oratory skills.

“We cannot call Warring an insignificant candidate from Bathinda. He is young and outspoken,” says a senior Akali leader, requesting anonymity.

A resident of Muktsar, Warring was nurtured politically in the Congress by former party veteran Jagmeet Singh Brar, now senior vice-president of the SAD. Warring began his political career as the block chief of the Youth Congress in 2000 and was elevated as Muktsar district president of the outfit in 2002.

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