Maharashtra Congress leaders clash on Twitter over Milind Deora's resignation

MUMBAI: With barely three months to go for the assembly elections in Maharashtra, the Mumbai Congress seems to be in complete disarray, especially after the resignation of Mumbai party chief Milind Deora.

Deora’s resignation has brought differences out in to the open, with leaders taking potshots at each other on social media.



The first salvo was fired by former Mumbai Congress chief Sanjay Nirupam who, reacting to Deora’s resignation, tweeted, “A resignation is about sacrifice; here, he is asking for a national post. Is this a resignation or a means to climb up the party ladder? The party should be cautious of such ‘loyalists’.”


While Nirupam did not name Deora, there’s little doubt who he was targeting as Deora had expressed his desire to play a national role.

Bhai Jagtap, a former Congress MLA from the Deora camp, slammed Nirupam in a tweet, “Some people claim to be Congressmen, but they practise caste and language politics. They insult other leaders, but go on to contest elections from their seats, and end up losing by 2.7 lakh votes. The party needs to be cautious of such loyalists.”



Jagtap’s reference was to Nirupam who had contested and lost from a different constituency in the recently-held general elections.

Some members of the Congress party have started using the party prefix, complete with the hand symbol, to take on their rivals. For instance, Sheetal Mhatre, a former Congress corporator, publicly tweeted about how accounts with Mumbai Congress Marathi and Mumbai Congress Anushakti Nagar were slamming Deora after his resignation.