From Scindia to Deora, here are the biggest Congress exits since 2019

Senior leader Milind Deora's resignation marks the end of his family's 55-year relationship with the Congress.

Amid seat-sharing talks with its allies, the Congress received a big blow with its senior leader and former Union Minister Milind Deora becoming the latest high-profile leader to quit the party. He joined the Shiv Sena in the presence of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on January 14.

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

Here’s a list of leaders who left the party since 2019:

Hardik Patel

Gujarat Patidar leader Hardik Patel quit the Congress in May 2022. According to him, top leaders seemed more interested in “messages they had received on their mobile (phones)”, behaved as if “they hate Gujarat and Gujaratis” while state Congress leaders were “more focussed” in arranging chicken sandwiches for them.

Also read: Milind Deora's leaves Congress. What does it mean for the party?

Sushmita Dev

Dev, the All India Mahila Congress chief, was one of the party’s prominent faces in Assam. She quit the Congress in August 2021 to join the Trinamool Congress (TMC). She was later nominated to the Rajya Sabha. Dev was said to be unhappy about some of the decisions taken by the leadership in Assam.

Jitin Prasada

In June 2021, Prasada became the first of the Group of 23 Congress leaders to leave the party.  He joined the BJP. The G-23 leaders had written to Sonia Gandhi in 2020 seeking radical changes in the organisation. “BJP is the only real political party and it is the only national party,” Prasada said.

Jyotiraditya Scindia

Jyotiraditya Scindia, quit the Congress and joined the BJP in 2020. His exit, along with 22 MLAS, brought down the Kamal Nath government and helped Shivraj Singh Chouhan get back at the helm in Madhya Pradesh.

Amarinder Singh

In November 2021, former Punjab CM Captain Amarinder Singh quit the Congress. He launched his own party, the Punjab Lok Congress. Less than a year later, he merged his party with the BJP. In a letter to Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Singh said, “Despite my profound reservations and over the unanimous advice of almost all the MPs from Punjab, you chose to appoint an acolyte of the Pakistani deep state Navjyot Singh Sindhu who had publicly hugged the Pakistan Army Chief Gen Bajwa and Prime Minister Imran Khan, as the President of the Punjab Congress Committee.”

RPN Singh

Former Union minister R P N Singh joined the BJP in January 2022. He claimed that the Congress was no longer the party it used to be. Singh, a key backward caste leader, was allegedly upset over being sidelined in the UP campaign led by Priyanka Gandhi.

Kapil Sibal

Kapil Sibal’s exit from the Congress in May 2022 came after he openly asked the Gandhis to step aside from leadership roles and give some other leader a chance. Shortly afterwards, he filed his nomination for the Rajya Sabha as an Independent candidate supported by the Samajwadi Party.

Sunil Jakhar

Sunil Jakhar headed the Punjab Congress unit. He quit the party in 2022 after the leadership pulled him up him for criticising then chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi. He joined the BJP in May and was named its Punjab unit chief in July that year.