‘Leave party’, Ajay Maken tells Milind Deora for praising Kejriwal, latter hits back

Milind Deora (File Photo: IANS)


Former Mumbai Congress president Milind Deora is facing flak from his own party colleagues for praising Arvind Kejriwal after he said that Delhi Chief Minister made the national capital a surplus state.

Milind Deora wrote on Twitter, “Sharing a lesser known & welcome fact – the @ArvindKejriwal-led Delhi Government doubled its revenues to Rs 60,000 crore & maintained a revenue surplus over the last 5 years. Food for thought: Delhi is now one of India’s most fiscally prudent governments.”

The first reaction came from party colleague Ajay Maken, asking Deora to “leave the party and then propagate half-baked facts”.

“Brother,you want to leave @INCIndia-Please do-Then propagate half baked facts! However,let me share even lesser know facts-1997-98-BE (Revenue) 4,073cr 2013-14-BE (Revenue) 37,459cr During Congress Govt Grew at 14.87% CAGR 2015-16 BE 41,129 2019-20 BE 60,000 AAP Gov 9.90% CAGR,” Maken said in response to Deora’s tweet.

Then came Chandni Chowk MLA Alka Lamba reaction. “Join Congress in the name of father, get ticket because of political lineage and then lose the election while leading the party. But when it’s time to fight for the party, play guitar.”

Another party leader Radhika Khera, who contested from Janakpuri but lost, also criticised Deora.

“As a young first time contestant, I find this extremely disappointing from our senior leaders, who instead of encouraging our own party to do better are busy patting AAP’s back! Food for thought: Delhi has run a surplus since 1994, this peaked in 2011 under Sheila Ji,” She wrote on Twitter.

Meanwhile, Milind Deora has hit back at DPCC ex-chief Ajay Maken.

“Brother, I would never undermine Sheila Dikshit’s stellar performance as Delhi CM. That’s your specialty. But it’s never too late to change! Instead of advocating an alliance with AAP, if only you had highlighted Sheila ji’s achievements, @INCIndia would’ve been in power today,” he said.

The first banner was raised by Sharmishtha Mukherji who criticised P Chidambaram for praising AAP.

The party has reprimanded its leaders not to speak in public and discuss the matter in the party forum only.