Mumbai: After losing yet another young politician – Milind Deora – to the ruling National Democratic Alliance on Sunday, the Congress put forth a brave face.. The Mallikarjun Kharge-led party said the Mumbai stalwart’s exit will not impact the Congress as “lakhs of Milind Deoras will join us”.

The Congress accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of engineering the high-profile exit and blamed “greed and fear” for the Mumbai stalwart’s decision to join Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena.

“I will be surprised if someone like him, after leaving Congress, would join an alliance party of the BJP. There are two big weaknesses in humans and those are greed and fear,” Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit said.

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said Deora’s exit won’t impact the party.

“It will have no effect. One Milind Deora will go, but lakhs of other Milind Deoras will join us. It will not affect our organisation at all,” he said.

“The Prime Minister has decided this, there is no doubt about it,” he added.

Ramesh told PTI that he had spoken with Deora on Friday.

“He messaged me on Friday at 8:52 AM and then at 2:47 PM I replied, ‘Are you planning a switch?’. At 2:48 he sent a message, ‘is speaking to you not possible?’ I said I will call you and at 3:40, I spoke to him. He (Deora) said he is concerned that it is a sitting Shiv Sena seat, he wanted to meet Rahul Gandhi and explain to him about the seat and also wanted me to talk to Mr. Gandhi about it. Obviously all this was a farce and he had made up his mind to leave. The timing of the announcement of his departure was clearly determined by the PM,” he said.

Also read: Milind Deora, who quit Congress, to join Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena today: Full itinerary

Why Deora resigned?

Deora today announced his resignation from the Congress on X.

“Today marks the conclusion of a significant chapter in my political journey. I have tendered my resignation from the primary membership of the Congress, ending my family’s 55-year relationship with the party. I am grateful to all leaders, colleagues & karyakartas for their unwavering support over the years,” he said.

He later said he was choosing the path of development.

Former chief minister and Congress Working Committee member Ashok Chavan said Milind Deora wanted to contest from South Mumbai Lok Sabha seat but the (Maha Vikas Aghadi) alliance’s understanding was that the sitting MP must not be disturbed.

The undivided Shiv Sena’s Arvind Sawant is the sitting MP from the South Mumbai seat. He had defeated Deora in the 2014 and 2019 general elections. The former is in the Uddhav Thackeray camp.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole said the Bharatiya Janata Party is scared of Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’.

“The BJP was spreading rumours that the Congress will split. Now the BJP and its allies are taking along with them a twice defeated candidate to divert attention from the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra. This attempt will not be successful,” he said.

With inputs from PTI, ANI