 "Milind Deora quits Congress, joins Maharashtra CM Shinde-led Shiv Sena")
Former Congress Lok Sabha member Milind Deora, who was a key part of Rahul Gandhi’s ‘young brigade’ of the mid-2000s, quit the party and joined Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena on Sunday.
Milind, a two-term member of the lower house and a former Union minister, said the Congress had “deviated from its ideological and organisational roots, lacking appreciation for honesty and constructive criticism.” “The party that once initiated India’s economic liberalisation now targets business houses as ‘anti-national’,” Milind said in a statement he posted on X.
According to sources, Deora was concerned that his Mumbai South Lok Sabha seat would go to the Shiv Sena (UBT) of Uddhav Thackeray as part of the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party-Shiv Sena seat-sharing talks. Milind quit the Congress barely a day after rejecting speculation to that effect. Sources in the Congress accused Deora of doing the Bharatiya Janata Party’s bidding in picking Sunday, the day Congress had scheduled to launch the Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra from Imphal, to leave the party.
Son of late Congress leader Murli Deora — who was a former Union petroleum minister, multiple-term MP and trusted aide of the Gandhi family — 47-year-old Milind was recently appointed the joint treasurer of the party. He was an important interface of the party with business houses and coordinated and accompanied Rahul Gandhi on his overseas visits in recent years, including to the US. He is the latest among Rahul Gandhi’s ‘young brigade’ to have quit the Congress, after Jyotiradiya Scindia, Jitin Prasada and RPN Singh.
Milind contested the Mumbai South seat in the last four Lok Sabha polls, winning in 2004 and 2009 and losing in 2014 and 2019 to the Sena’s Arvind Sawant, one of the few MPs of that party who have chosen to stick by Thackeray. The former CM has insisted that his party should contest the seat. In a recently released video, Milind advised his supporters to remain calm and asked Sena to wait for the alliance to finalise the seat-sharing talks before staking claim to the seat. Nearly a dozen corporators of Mumbai and South Mumbai Congress leaders are likely to follow Milind to the ruling party.
In his statement, Milind said that during the establishment of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) in Maharashtra in 2019, he opposed the alliance with Thackeray’s Sena, “foreseeing its detrimental impact on the Congress”. “Despite personal gains taking precedence over ideology for both UBT and the Congress, I consistently advocated for caution over four years,” Milind said. He said that “regrettably” the current state of Congress no longer resonates with the party that he and his father, Murli Deora, joined in 1968 and 2004, respectively, ending a 55-year-long association.
The Congress, Milind said, “has strayed from celebrating India’s diverse culture and religions, fostering division based on caste, and creating a North-South divide.” He said the Congress has failed not just to attain power but also to serve as a constructive opposition at the Centre. He lauded the leadership of a “humble chaiwala” in Prime Minister Modi and “an autorickshaw driver” in Shinde as the chief minister of Maharashtra.