'4 down, 1 to go': Milind Deora, Scindia, Sachin Pilot's old photo goes viral
Since the 2019 general elections, Scindia, Prasad, Singh and Deora have quit the Congress and joined the BJP.
New Delhi: After former MP Milind Deora quit the Congress and joined Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena on Sunday, an old photo of several young leaders who resigned from the party since 2019 went viral.
The photo shows young former Congress leaders -- Jyotiraditya Scindia, Jitin Prasad, RPN Singh and Milind Deora -- standing together in one frame with Sachin Pilot.
Referring to the exit of all the other leaders apart from Pilot, an X user wrote: ‘ Four left, one 1 remaining.’
Pilot, whose public spat with former Rajasthhan CM Ashok Gehlot went on for years, downplayed Deora's exit today.
"Everyone is free to choose their party and ideology, only time will tell whether his decision was right or not,” he said.
Also read: 'Politics of PAIN': Milind Deora reveals why he quit Congress
In 2020, Pilot came close to quitting the party after his office issued a statement that Gehlot's government was in a minority. He was sacked as the deputy CM and Rajasthan Congress president.
He, however, later refused to quit the party.
However, even after the controversy, Gehlot kept making adversarial remarks against Pilot. Before the Rajasthan Assembly elections, however, the two leaders claimed they had no differences.
Milind Deora today claimed the party hadn't focussed on the "constructive suggestions and merit".
"I want to say one thing, I was loyal to Congress when it was going through a difficult phase. I joined Congress in 2004. If Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT) had focused on constructive suggestions and merit, we would not be sitting here," he said.
The blow came to the Congress leadership on the day the party embarked on its nationwide Yatra from Manipur.
According to reports, Deora was upset with the party's inclination to give the South Mumbai seat to Shiv Sena (UBT) for the 2024 general elections. Deora had been the MP from the seat till 2014, when he was defeated by the Sena's Arvind Sawant.
The Congress today appeared to be unfazed with Deora's exit as it said "lakhs of Milind Deoras will join us".
