Maharashtra Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam, a former Rajya Sabha MP, said he is not leaving the Congress on speculations of a hordes of big-ticket Congress leaders leaving the grand old party following in the footsteps of Milind Deora, Baba Siddique and Ashok Chavan. These are all baseless speculation and rumours, Sanjay Nirupam wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. Maharashtra Congress hit a major crisis ahead of the Lok Sabha election with the recent big-ticket exits. The exodus has not yet stopped as Maharashtra deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnnavis said many exits are lined up. BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawala said a dynastic leader from Pune is ‘roaming with application’.
On Ashok Chavan’s exit, Sanjay Nirupam said Ashok Chavan was an asset and he was upset with the working style of a Maharashtra leader. “Some are calling him a liability, some are holding ED responsible, all this is a hasty reaction. He was basically very upset with the working style of a leader from Maharashtra,” Sanjay Nirupam said.
While Milind Deora joined Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena, Baba Siddique joined Ajit Pawar’s NCP. Ashok Chavan has not yet announced which party he is switching to and said he will reveal his plans in the next few days.
Why Maharashtra Congress seeing an exodus ahead of the Lok Sabha election
Milind Deora quit the party owing to the seat-sharing with UBT (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) Sena. Muslim leader Baba Siddique said he was used like ‘curry leaves’ by the Congress only for flavour. Ashok Chavan said he was not in touch with any political party. “I can’t believe it. Till yesterday they were together, discussing; today he left… Will Chavan, like Eknath Mindhe and Ajit Pawar, now claim Congress and take the ‘hand’ symbol? And will the Election Commission give them to him? Anything can happen in our country!” UBT leader Sanjay Raut said drawing a parallel to what happened to Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party in Maharashtra.
