Maha News| Milind Deora's departure is the denouement everyone was expecting — for him and Congress
Though Milind Deora hasn’t won an election since 2014, his surname carries heft. Things became complicated since the formation of the MVA alliance, experts say
Milind Deora's exit from the Congress marks the end of the Deora family's 55-year long ties with the grand old party —a significant chapter in Maharashtra’s politics and the party’s own history.
The 47-year-old, who has stood for elections from the Mumbai south constituency four times (and won twice) was disappointed that the Lok Sabha seat didn’t come to the Congress in its seat-sharing pact with allies Shiv Sena (UBT) and Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).
The constituency has been in the Deora family for a while: His father, the late Murli Deora, represented it for four terms (in 1984, 1989, 1991, 1998); Deora represented it in 2004 and 2009, and lost it to Shiv Sena's Arvind Sawant (now with Uddhav Thackeray’s faction of the Shiv Sena) in the 2014 and 2019 general elections. Arguing that the Shiv Sena could win it because of the Modi wave in 2014 and the support of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2019, the Deora camp staked claim on the seat that covers six assembly segments — and much of the business districts of south Mumbai, including Nariman Point, as well as the tony residences of Malabar Hill, Cumbala Hill and Altmount Road. However, the party had to concede it to the Thackeray faction of the Sena due to a pact between the allies that parties will retain the seats if they have sitting MPs there.
The Deora camp felt that the party leadership did not even make an attempt to get the constituency for itself, given then changed political equations in Maharashtra — a depleted Sena, and the BJP’s support of chief minister Eknath Shinde, and the Shiv Sena now led by him. Thus, on January 14, Deora quit the Congress and joined the Shinde-led Sena.
Interestingly, speculations were rife that Deora would join the BJP. According to BJP insiders, there were several reasons Deora chose Shinde instead of the BJP. For one, it was said that two local leaders in south Mumbai — minister of skills and employment Mangal Prabhat Lodha and assembly speaker Rahul Narwekar — were strongly opposed to his entry. Further, party leaders were wary of inducting him when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was slamming the opposition parties over dynasties. Furthermore, Shinde’s MP son Shrikant who has a good personal equation with Deora, played a key role in getting him into the party. If party leaders are to be believed, Shinde has promised Deora a Rajya Sabha seat if the BJP fields its candidate in south Mumbai constituency.
Whatever the reasons, Milind Deora is no longer associated with the Congress.
Deora's pain point
“The Congress is not the same that it used to be in 1968 when my father joined or in 2004 when I joined it. The party which ushered economic reforms 30 years ago under the leadership of Manmohan Singh, today abuses businessmen and industrialists. I believe in the politics of GAIN — growth, aspiration, inclusiveness and nationalist (GAIN) — and I am not in favour of the politics of PAIN – personal attacks, injustice and negativity,” he said as he announced his decision to quit the party last week.
Deora joined the Shiv Sena with 10 former corporators, 20 office bearers of the party from South Mumbai and representatives of key business organisations in South Mumbai. His close aide, Congress MLA Amin Patel, has chosen to stay back in Congress.
Deora’s quitting shows that the party has not managed to stop its downward slide in Mumbai. The party leadership failed to address the problems that the Mumbai Congress faces — intense factionalism, failure to recover lost ground and dearth of leadership that can take all factions together and mobilise the cadre.
“The party bosses are not paying serious attention to find out what is ailing the Congress in Mumbai and to resolve the problems. We had a meeting when the All India Congress Committee in charge of Maharashtra Ramesh Chennithala was here. We spoke with Deora. He said he wanted to talk with the Central leadership. It seems he was not given an appointment,” said a Congress leader from south Mumbai, seeking anonymity.
“There is no crisis management mechanism in the party. Earlier leaders like Ahmed Patel knew how to reach out to such people and prevent them from quitting the party or would resolve the crisis,” he added.
What's the impact?
This shift will affect the Congress and the INDIA alliance’s prospects in the upcoming Lok Sabha and assembly elections this year. Though the Congress has not won a single Lok Sabha seat in Mumbai in the past two election cycles, and only managed a few in the assembly elections (four in 2019), it has a significant presence across the city and a sizable number of votes in each assembly segment. Both father and son had a good connect with traditional Congress voters in several parts of the city, especially in south and south central Mumbai.
The Deora name carries heft — Murli Deora was president of Mumbai Congress for over two decades. He had excellent organising skills and strengthened the party across the city, from the affluent areas of Malabar Hill and Colaba to the slums in the suburbs. He was also known to nurture young leaders. Realising Bal Thackeray-led Shiv Sena's strength, he along with other leaders smartly built the Congress’s base among non-Marathi voters, minorities and Dalits to ensure that the party remained a strong political force in the metropolis. The party did not lose its base even as it split in the state, first in 1985 when Pawar founded Congress (S) and again, in 1999, when Pawar formed the NCP.
Murli Deora led the party to victory in the Mumbai civic polls in 1992. Congress showed a strong presence in Mumbai in the Lok Sabha and assembly elections in 1999, 2004 and 2009. The veteran politician died in 2014, aged 77.
The past decade and a half though, the party saw a decline in its performance — this coincided with the deaths of Deora and another strong Mumbai Congress leader, Gurudas Kamat. The Congress in Mumbai did not get a president of the stature of Deora or Kamat. With the emergence of Modi, the resurgent BJP took away the Congress’s Gujarati-Marwari voter base, as well as its north Indian voters. In the past few years, the party's north Indian leaders such as Kripashankar Singh and Rajhans Singh also left the party to join the BJP. The Congress has since then failed to regain lost ground. Its presence in the city is largely dependent on Muslim and Dalit voters and a few pockets where local leaders are holding on to their support base.
Deora got the parliamentary seat because of his father's legacy, but maintained his own identity. On occasion, he even criticised his own party's government, such as the time after the 26/11 terror attack and over the 2010 Adarsh Housing Society scam. Significantly, he was not isolated by the party. Things seem to have changed for him now.
Political analyst Abhay Deshpande said Congress top brass tried various permutations and combinations but nothing worked in Mumbai.
“Things have become more complicated since the formation of the MVA. With a traditional rival like the Shiv Sena becoming an ally, there is a clash of interest between the two parties, and various Congress leaders are unhappy because of the adjustment the party has to do,” he said.
“Deora’s exit is the outcome of all of this put together.”
Maha News is a weekly column by Shailesh Gaikwad, political editor of HT Mumbai, which analyses the impact of the most important political news in the state.
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