NEW DELHI: Congress leaders Milind Deora and Ajay Maken crossed swords with each other after the party leader from Maharashtra praised the AAP government’s achievement on Twitter. The fight turned ugly prompting the Congress brass to intervene and caution its leaders to introspect their roles and responsibilities.

Trouble started when Deora, a former Mumbai Congress president, tweeted praising the AAP government on Sunday. “Sharing a lesser-known and welcome fact -- the @ArvindKejriwal-led Delhi government doubled its revenues to Rs 60,000 crore and maintained a revenue surplus over the last 5 years. Food for thought: Delhi is now one of India’s most fiscally prudent governments,” he posted.

Maken was the first to react, saying: “Brother, you want to leave @INCIndia - Please do - Then propagate half baked facts!” He then compared revenue generation in Delhi from 1997-1998 onwards, claiming that the revenue) was Rs 37,459 cr in 2013-14 (a growth of 14.87 per cent). It has now fallen to
Rs 60,000 crore in 2019-20, a growth of only 9.90 per cent.

Deora hit back on Monday morning: “Brother, I would never undermine Sheila Dikshit’s stellar performance as Delhi CM. That’s your speciality. 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.”

It is not the first time that Congress leaders put the party high command at unease with their comments.  Soon after the Delhi poll results were declared on February 11, Congress leader Sharmistha Mukherjee had criticised senior leader P Chidambaram for praising the AAP performance.

On Monday, Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala advised party leaders to look at their own performances, responsibilities and commitment to the party.  

“How much has the Congress gained in their respective areas or under their own leadership? I urge each one of the Congress leaders, that they should concentrate first their role and responsibility on strengthening the Congress in their constituency and the state that they come from,” Surjewala told reporters to a question on the spat of Congress leaders.