Punjab Congress gets new president: Who is Pargat Singh? - The Indian Express

The Congress on Friday appointed former India hockey captain Pargat Singh, the sitting MLA from Jalandhar Cantonment, the new Punjab Congress president. The announcement came hours after Amrinder Singh Raja Warring stepped down from the post and blamed AICC Punjab in-charge Sachin Pilot for his exit.

The 62-year-old Singh, a former Punjab Police officer, has represented Jalandhar Cantonment since 2012 and served as a Cabinet minister during the brief tenure of Charanjit Singh Channi as CM. At present, he is the AICC secretary in charge of Jammu and Kashmir.

Born in Mithapur, Jalandhar, a village known for producing hockey players, Singh played as a full-back and was widely regarded as one of India’s best defenders of his era. He represented India at the Olympics in Seoul 1988, Barcelona 1992, and Atlanta 1996, captaining the team in the last two. At Atlanta 1996, he was also India’s flag-bearer at the opening ceremony.

Other highlights include a bronze medal with the Indian team at the 1986 Asian Games in Seoul and a silver at the 1990 Asian Games in Beijing. He received the Arjuna Award in 1989 and the Padma Shri in 1998. After his playing career he coached the men’s national team and later held roles in hockey administration in Punjab, including as general secretary of Hockey Punjab (2017).

Pargat served in the Punjab Police and rose to the rank of Superintendent of Police (SP) before leaving the service and entering electoral politics in 2012 after winning Jalandhar Cantonment on a Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) ticket and defeating Congress’s Jagbir Singh Brar. In July 2016, the SAD suspended him and he shortly quit the party, accusing Sukhbir Badal of betraying the trust of the voters.

He then joined Navjot Singh Sidhu and the Bains brothers in the short-lived Awaaz-e-Punjab front, which presented itself as opposing forces they deemed harmful to Punjab’s interests. He later joined the Indian National Congress and won the same seat again in 2017.

Under Channi, he was a Cabinet Minister from September 26, 2021, to March 11 2022, holding the School Education, Higher Education, Sports and Youth Affairs, and NRI Affairs portfolios.

In the 2022 Assembly elections, when the AAP received a huge mandate, he retained Jalandhar Cantonment for Congress, defeating fellow former hockey international Surinder Singh Sodhi by around 5,800 votes.