Scindia and Azad to Milind Deora, the big leaders who have quit Congress since 2020

Ending his family’s “55-year relationship” with the Congress, former Congress MP and Union Minister Milind Deora on Sunday became the latest high-profile leader to sever ties with the Opposition party. Deora joined the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena at an event in the Maharashtra CM’s presence. He is said to have been unhappy with the party about the possibility of his Mumbai South seat going to the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) as part of a seat-sharing agreement. Deora lost the last two Lok Sabha elections to the Shiv Sena’s Arvind Sawant who is with the Thackeray-led party

When he entered Parliament for the first time in 2004, Deora was part of a group of young MPs considered to be close to Rahul Gandhi. Among them were Jyotiraditya Scindia, Jitin Prasada, Sachin Pilot, and R P N Singh. All of them, except Pilot, have left the Congress.

Here is a list of some of the big leaders who have quit the Congress since 2020.

Jyotiraditya Scindia

The four-time MP and former Union minister, a member of the erstwhile Gwalior royal family, quit the Congress in March 2020 with at least 22 MLAs in Madhya Pradesh to join the BJP. His exit precipitated the fall of the Congress-led Kamal Nath state government just over a year after it came to power.

In his resignation letter, Scindia described his exit as “a path that has been drawing itself out over the last year”. Indicating his disillusionment with the Congress, he wrote: “While my aim and purpose remain the same as it has always been from the very beginning, to serve the people of my state and country, I believe I am unable to do this anymore within this party.”

Notably, after the Congress’s 2019 Lok Sabha defeat, Scindia was among the names touted as possible successors to Rahul