diff --git a/br/pkg/lightning/backend/local/local.go b/br/pkg/lightning/backend/local/local.go
index fd91144734022..22ec265802dd4 100644
--- a/br/pkg/lightning/backend/local/local.go
+++ b/br/pkg/lightning/backend/local/local.go
@@ -943,6 +943,11 @@ func (local *local) WriteToTiKV(
 			}
 		}
 	}
+	leaderID := region.Leader.GetId()
+	if leaderID == 0 {
+		return nil, Range{}, rangeStats{}, common.ErrNoLeader.GenWithStackByArgs(region.Region.Id, leaderID)
+	}
+
 	begin := time.Now()
 	regionRange := intersectRange(region.Region, Range{start: start, end: end})
 	opt := &pebble.IterOptions{LowerBound: regionRange.start, UpperBound: regionRange.end}
@@ -984,7 +989,6 @@ func (local *local) WriteToTiKV(
 		// annotate the error with peer/store/region info to help debug.
 		return errors.Annotatef(in, "peer %d, store %d, region %d, epoch %s", peer.Id, peer.StoreId, region.Region.Id, region.Region.RegionEpoch.String())
 	}
-	leaderID := region.Leader.GetId()
 	clients := make([]sst.ImportSST_WriteClient, 0, len(region.Region.GetPeers()))
 	allPeers := make([]*metapb.Peer, 0, len(region.Region.GetPeers()))
 	requests := make([]*sst.WriteRequest, 0, len(region.Region.GetPeers()))
@@ -1106,13 +1110,17 @@ func (local *local) WriteToTiKV(
 		}
 	}
 
+	failpoint.Inject("NoLeader", func() {
+		log.FromContext(ctx).Warn("enter failpoint NoLeader")
+		leaderPeerMetas = nil
+	})
+
 	// if there is not leader currently, we should directly return an error
 	if len(leaderPeerMetas) == 0 {
 		log.FromContext(ctx).Warn("write to tikv no leader", logutil.Region(region.Region), logutil.Leader(region.Leader),
 			zap.Uint64("leader_id", leaderID), logutil.SSTMeta(meta),
 			zap.Int64("kv_pairs", totalCount), zap.Int64("total_bytes", size))
-		return nil, Range{}, stats, errors.Errorf("write to tikv with no leader returned, region '%d', leader: %d",
-			region.Region.Id, leaderID)
+		return nil, Range{}, stats, common.ErrNoLeader.GenWithStackByArgs(region.Region.Id, leaderID)
 	}
 
 	log.FromContext(ctx).Debug("write to kv", zap.Reflect("region", region), zap.Uint64("leader", leaderID),
diff --git a/br/pkg/lightning/common/errors.go b/br/pkg/lightning/common/errors.go
index 14645217636a4..a5cf01e43b184 100644
--- a/br/pkg/lightning/common/errors.go
+++ b/br/pkg/lightning/common/errors.go
@@ -82,6 +82,7 @@ var (
 	ErrKVReadIndexNotReady   = errors.Normalize("read index not ready", errors.RFCCodeText("Lightning:KV:ReadIndexNotReady"))
 	ErrKVIngestFailed        = errors.Normalize("ingest tikv failed", errors.RFCCodeText("Lightning:KV:ErrKVIngestFailed"))
 	ErrKVRaftProposalDropped = errors.Normalize("raft proposal dropped", errors.RFCCodeText("Lightning:KV:ErrKVRaftProposalDropped"))
+	ErrNoLeader              = errors.Normalize("write to tikv with no leader returned, region '%d', leader: %d", errors.RFCCodeText("Lightning:KV:ErrNoLeader"))
 
 	ErrUnknownBackend       = errors.Normalize("unknown backend %s", errors.RFCCodeText("Lightning:Restore:ErrUnknownBackend"))
 	ErrCheckLocalFile       = errors.Normalize("cannot find local file for table: %s engineDir: %s", errors.RFCCodeText("Lightning:Restore:ErrCheckLocalFile"))
diff --git a/br/pkg/lightning/common/retry.go b/br/pkg/lightning/common/retry.go
index f6db6cda86407..c3bb979a9bd32 100644
--- a/br/pkg/lightning/common/retry.go
+++ b/br/pkg/lightning/common/retry.go
@@ -70,6 +70,7 @@ func IsRetryableError(err error) bool {
 var retryableErrorIDs = map[errors.ErrorID]struct{}{
 	ErrKVEpochNotMatch.ID():  {},
 	ErrKVNotLeader.ID():      {},
+	ErrNoLeader.ID():         {},
 	ErrKVRegionNotFound.ID(): {},
 	// common.ErrKVServerIsBusy is a little duplication with tmysql.ErrTiKVServerBusy
 	// it's because the response of sst.ingest gives us a sst.IngestResponse which doesn't contain error code,
diff --git a/br/tests/lightning_local_backend/config.toml b/br/tests/lightning_local_backend/config.toml
index 46ca06e09b4ab..73c54882430c7 100644
--- a/br/tests/lightning_local_backend/config.toml
+++ b/br/tests/lightning_local_backend/config.toml
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 [lightning]
 table-concurrency = 1
+index-concurrency = 1
 
 [checkpoint]
 enable = true
diff --git a/br/tests/lightning_local_backend/run.sh b/br/tests/lightning_local_backend/run.sh
index 60fca277d8cf6..b4eebef19c639 100755
--- a/br/tests/lightning_local_backend/run.sh
+++ b/br/tests/lightning_local_backend/run.sh
@@ -55,7 +55,7 @@ check_contains 'sum(c): 46'
 run_sql 'DROP DATABASE cpeng;'
 rm -f "/tmp/tidb_lightning_checkpoint_local_backend_test.pb"
 
-export GO_FAILPOINTS='github.com/pingcap/tidb/br/pkg/lightning/backend/local/FailIngestMeta=2*return("epochnotmatch")'
+export GO_FAILPOINTS='github.com/pingcap/tidb/br/pkg/lightning/backend/local/FailIngestMeta=2*return("epochnotmatch");github.com/pingcap/tidb/br/pkg/lightning/backend/local/NoLeader=1*return()'
 
 run_lightning --backend local --enable-checkpoint=1 --log-file "$TEST_DIR/lightning-local.log" --config "tests/$TEST_NAME/config.toml"
 
diff --git a/errors.toml b/errors.toml
index b793e284e314a..c3d927027bfd0 100644
--- a/errors.toml
+++ b/errors.toml
@@ -406,6 +406,11 @@ error = '''
 raft proposal dropped
 '''
 
+["Lightning:KV:ErrNoLeader"]
+error = '''
+write to tikv with no leader returned, region '%d', leader: %d
+'''
+
 ["Lightning:KV:NotLeader"]
 error = '''
 not leader