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.