Milind Deora latest young Cong leaderto leave party for greener pastures

 The development reflects a continuing saga of unaddressed concerns of young leaders once considered close to former Congress president Rahul Gandhi.

PTI, New Delhi, Jan 14, 2024 : Former Union minister and ex-MP from Mumbai South Milind Deora’s resignation from the Congress on Sunday is the latest addition to a list of young leaders who have left it to begin new innings in other parties, predominantly the BJP.

The development reflects a continuing saga of unaddressed concerns of young leaders once considered close to former Congress president Rahul Gandhi.

Every such exit has also highlighted the alleged inaccessibility of the Gandhi family to the lower rung of party leadership and the reluctance to pass on the baton to the next generation amid the dwindling fortunes of the grand old party that the young leaders are unable to accept.

Sources close to Deora said he left the party after “a very long and futile wait”.

The former Lok Sabha MP could not manage an assurance from his party that he would get to contest from Mumbai South in the upcoming general election, a seat represented by his family for decades, the sources said.

“The Shiv Sena UBT has been openly laying claim to Mumbai South and the Congress was unable to give an assurance of safety for Milind Deora’s seat.

“A young leader’s political future was thrown into uncertainty and there was no redressal,” a Deora aide said as he ended the 55-year-old bond his family had with the Congress in which his late father Murali Deora was a formidable figure and a petroleum minister in the UPA regime.

However, Deora after joining Shiv Sena (Shinde faction) said, “This is not because of any seat issues. I feel Congress is not the same party it was when I joined it in 2004. My wish is to make a positive contribution towards society.” “I have been receiving a lot of calls since morning about why I left the Congress. I was a lawyer of the party during its most challenging decade.

“However, there is a difference between the present Congress and the Congress when my later father (Murli Deora) joined in 1968,” he said.

Lack of redressal of festering issues and intra-party factionalism earlier led several promising leaders of the Rahul Gandhi camp to leave.

The list is long with former Rajasthan deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot standing out as the sole exception as he chose to stay despite non-fulfilment of promises made to him by the top brass when he called off his revolt in 2020 against his bete noire Ashok Gehlot, then CM.

“Everyone is free to choose their party and ideology, only time will tell whether his decision was right or not,” Pilot said on Sunday Deora’s exit from the party.

Union minister in the Congress-led UPA government Jyotiraditya Scindia was not so patient with factionalism in the Madhya Pradesh unit when he resigned from the Congress to join the BJP in March 2020. Scindia said he could no longer take the disrespect coming from veteran Kamal Nath.

In June 2021, another ex-UPA minister Jitin Prasada quit the Congress citing the party’s growing disconnect with the people.

A series of exodus happened thereafter with Priyanka Chaturvedi joining the erstwhile undivided Shiv Sena, former Gujarat unit working president Hardik Patel joining the BJP, former Mahila Congress chief Sushmita Dev quitting for TMC while former union minister RPN Singh, former Punjab Congress chief Sunil Jakhar and party spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill also joined the BJP.

The exits that began with then Assam Congress stalwart Himanta Biswa Sarma leaving the party for the BJP on the eve of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls never really stopped and high-profile resignations continued with even former Punjab CM Amarinder Singh also going to the BJP citing personal insults by the party ahead of Punjab polls in 2022.

“It is impossible to get an audience with Rahul Gandhi, there is a clear disconnect and one feels suffocated,” a Deora aide said explaining his decision.

Similar views were earlier aired by most leaders, including Sarma, at the time of their exit.

Rahul Gandhi personally has long held a view that those who wish to quit are free to do so.

The Congress leadership has so far chosen to explain the exits as resignations of leaders who don’t have the capacity to take on the BJP in an ideological fight.

“Once the tide turns in our favour all these leaders will return. For them it’s individual above the party,” he said.

The Congress also questioned the timing of Deora’s resignation, which came hours before Rahul Gandhi embarked on his ambitious Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra from Manipur to Mumbai on Sunday.

The BJP was quick to attack the Congress with IT department head Amit Malviya saying, “The Congress should first give justice to its leaders rather than launch a Nyay Yatra.” Shergill said the Congress ‘todo yatra’ has begun.

“First, Assam’s general secretary (Apurba Bhattacharjee) resigned (from Congress), and now Milind Deora has too.

“Rahul Gandhi has to answer regarding the injustice he has done to the party and its leaders,” the BJP leader said.

The Congress downplayed the resignation, with general secretary Jairam Ramesh saying that one Milind Deora goes away but “lakhs of Milinds who believe in our organisation and ideology stay”.