Milind Deora (Politician) Age, Wife, Family, Biography & More

Some Lesser Known Facts About Milind Deora

• Milind Deora is an Indian politician known for serving as the Union Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology and Shipping. Additionally, he was a member of the 15th Lok Sabha from the Mumbai South constituency and was President of the Mumbai Regional Congress committee. In 2024, he left the Indian National Congress and joined Shiv Sena.

• His father was a Member of Parliament for the Mumbai South constituency between 1984 and 1996, and again in 1998 in the 12th Lok Sabha.
  

  Milind Deora as a child with his father

• Despite being born in a political background family, he never wanted to become a politician.

• While he was studying in Boston, he was working in a private sector after which he started his journey to the Lok Sabha.

• He was inclined towards music since childhood and learned many genres. When he was in Boston, Milind found the music genre that influenced his adult musical journey: the blues. After coming across Stevie Ray Vaughan’s album “Austin City Limits,” Deora developed a deep interest in blues guitar and learned about iconic figures like Jimi Hendrix and B.B. King. In an interview, he said that performing on stage with Buddy Guy, a blues legend and one of his heroes was a great experience for him.
  

  Milind Deora (left) playing guitar on stage

• Milind carried his passion for the blues back to India, participating in various blues bands. One of them was Tightrope, a Delhi-based group that was prominent in the genre until 2011. Additionally, he also jammed with Soulmate, a group of highly skilled blues musicians from Shillong.

• After completing his education and returning to Mumbai, Deora focused on helping underprivileged kids in South Mumbai. During this time, he established an NGO called Sparsh, which supported financially struggling schools. The organization also offered free computer education in more than 100 schools and distributed uniforms and textbooks to needy students.
  

  A collage of Milind Deora doing various activities for the welfare of children

• He became a member of the 14th Lok Sabha by winning the 2004 elections. Deora became the youngest member of the 15th Lok Sabha at the age of 27. He secured victory with a margin of 10,000 votes, defeating BJP’s Jaywantiben Mehta.

• In 2004, he served on the Standing Committee on Defence and was part of the Consultative Committee in the Ministry of Defence.

• While he was serving as the Minister of Telecommunications, he faced the issue of Mobile Tower Radiation. When Milind took office in 2004, the telecommunication density in India increased from less than 10% to over 70%. This transformation raised new concerns and increased awareness about potential health risks related to radiation from the growing number of mobile phones and radio towers in the country.
  

  Milind Deora trying to solve the issue of Mobile Tower Radiation

• On 7 August 2006, he became a member of the Consultative Committee in the Ministry of Urban Development.

• After winning the election, he urged for more financial support from the central government to fund projects for urban infrastructure. Mumbai and Maharashtra benefited from the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission. After discussing the matter in Parliament, he secured 1200 crore rupees (12 billion) for the BMC to make changes in the Storm Water Drain Project.

• He also started the discussion on the Right to Information in Parliament, representing the UPA-1 Government. He utilized MPLADS funds for various public welfare projects like building public toilets, fixing drainage lines, repairing roads, and enhancing the appearance of places such as Marine Drive, Gateway of India, and Jhaveri Bazar.
  

  Milind Deora inaugrating MPLAD Inauguration Program

• He convinced the state government to speed up projects like the Bandra-Worli sea link and Mumbai Metro. Additionally, he secured funds from both the Central and State governments for hospitals, including G.T. and J.J.

• In the 2009 Lok Sabha election, Deora again won from Mumbai South Constituency with a lead of 1,12,682 votes.

• As the MLA, a group of traders approached him to convey their concerns to the Chief Minister of Maharashtra. He had three meetings with the CM regarding this matter. In a gathering organized by Milind with representatives from the trading community, it was declared that the implementation of Local Body Tax in Mumbai was postponed until there was an agreement between the trading community and the Maharashtra Government.

• He attended 88% of the parliamentary sessions and asked 274 questions covering topics from Home Affairs to Finance, and from Urban Development to Environment and Forests.

• He served on the Committee on Information Technology and was also part of the Consultative Committee in the Ministry of Civil Aviation.

• Deora served as an inspiration for Abhishek Bachchan, who played the role of a young politician in the 2009 film Paa. In an interview, he said,
  

  I modeled my look after Sachin Pilot and Milind Deora in the film. There were no special effects taken for my look in the movie because we wanted to keep the character as normal as possible.”

• On 1 May 2010, he became a member of the Committee on Estimates.

• In 2011, when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh reshuffled his council of ministers, Murli Deora stepped down as the Minister of Petroleum just before the reshuffle. In his place, Milind was appointed to the Union Cabinet as the Minister of State for Communications and IT. A year later, Milind also took over the Ministry of Shipping.
  

  Milind Deora with Manmohan Singh

• In July 2011, he became a member of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and was committed to activities like strengthening the regulator, providing sufficient e-infrastructure and providing value-for-money services.

• He became in charge of the Ministry of Shipping in October 2012. To promote the maritime heritage of the state, he suggested creating a heritage museum and an elevator as part of the Vizhinjam lighthouse tourism project. This initiative was carried out by the Directorate General of Lighthouses and Lightships in collaboration with the Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation, using a public-private partnership model. After becoming the minister of shipping, he said,
  

  Through our lighthouses, the Ministry of Shipping has established a National Automatic Identification System Network along India’s coastline. This is used for coastal surveillance to track vessels fitted with transponders up to a distance of 50km. We are also developing a Tourism Policy for our lighthouses and have identified over two dozen lighthouses around India that will be taken up in Phase 1.”

  

  Milind Deora at one of the lighthouse

• In 2012, Milind Deora’s Twitter account was temporarily disabled by the micro-blogging site.

• On 6 June 2013, Deora organized a live discussion on the future of IT and Communication in India using Google+ Hangout. The session was led by TV anchor Cyrus Broacha.
  

  Milind Deora with Cyrus Broacha

• In the 2013 Youth Parliament, almost a hundred students from 20 city colleges actively participated in the parliamentary discussions held at the BSE Ltd convention hall. Sachin Pilot, the Minister of State of Corporate Affairs, attended as the chief guest. The event was part of a series of initiatives led by Deora. Throughout the day’s proceedings, Mumbai’s youth engaged in in-depth discussions on various issues such as Direct Benefit Transfers, the Juvenile Justice Act, Mobile Tower Radiation, Telangana state reorganization, FDI in Retail, Uniform Civil Code, Fiscal deficit, and NRHM.
  

  Milind Deora during Youth Parliament with students

• In October 2013, Deora launched @UthSpeak, a non-political social media account on Twitter designed for the youth to express their opinions. This platform did not represent his personal views or any party biases; it remained neutral. The goal was to discuss critical issues affecting the country, focusing on one issue each month. Importantly, it aimed to bridge the gap between the youth and India’s decision-makers, as the suggestions shared on the platform led to active interactions between Uthspeak and the authorities.
  

  Details about Uth Speak

• The BMC’s order in 2013 to demolish the upper levels of seven buildings constructed in the 1980s also included Campa Cola Compound in Worli. He directly accompanied representatives from the Campa Cola Housing Society to meet the Chief Minister, advocating for their case and ensuring that the voices of the people were heard. The residents of Campa Cola, along with Milind, successfully obtained a six-month delay on the demolition.
  

  A collage of Milind Deora helping people of Campa Cola Housing Society

• When the decision to disband the Tariff Authority for Major Ports (TAMP) was taken in 2014, Milind mentioned that the Shipping Ministry was considering additional measures to achieve more fairness in pricing across all ports.

• In 2014, he suggested to the Maharashtra government led by Chavan to involve opposition parties. He emphasized the importance of this step since members from various political parties were implicated in the Adarsh scam. On 25 December 2013, he posted on Twitter: “If the Adarsh report raises questions, we should investigate them (regardless of party or bureaucracy), provide answers, and not keep it quiet.”

• Adding to the challenges for the UPA government under criticism from the Opposition and the public for passing an ordinance on protecting convicted MLAs/MPs, Deora openly opposed it in 2014. In a tweet, he expressed concern that the ordinance, despite its legal aspects, harmed the diminishing public trust in democracy. In a Twitter post, he wrote “Setting aside legalities, permitting convicted MPs/MLAs to keep their seats during an appeal can jeopardize the already declining public confidence in democracy.”

• In 2014, the Direct Mayor Direct Accountability campaign was started by Milind. It aimed to give Mumbai’s mayor more accountability to the city’s voters for increased transparency and better governance coordination. The goal was to achieve this by directly electing the Mayor. His petition to the Chief Minister of Maharashtra garnered approximately 5,000 votes.

• In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, he was defeated by over 1.5 lakh votes by Shiv Sena leader Aravind Sawant.

• In 2018, he initiated the Quit Plastic Movement, a citizen-led effort to decrease reliance on single-use plastic in daily life. In a photo, actor and UN Environment Goodwill Ambassador Dia Mirza was seen receiving a sapling from Deora during a plastic waste recycling drive at the World Trade Centre in Cuffe Parade.
  

  Milind Deora with Dia Mirza

• After Rahul Gandhi stepped down and the Congress party faced defeats in the 2019 Lok Sabha election, he resigned from his position as the Mumbai Congress party president.

• Deora suggested setting up a temporary team of three experienced leaders to oversee the Mumbai City unit until the Vidhan Sabha elections. He mentioned that he was eager to take on a national role to assist in stabilizing the party.

• On 14 January 2024, Deora stepped down from the Congress party, concluding his membership and putting an end to his family’s 55-year-long connection with the Congress party. After leaving the party, he tweeted,
  

  Today marks the conclusion of a significant chapter in my political journey. I have tendered my resignation from the primary membership of @INCIndia, ending my family’s 55-year relationship with the party. I am grateful to all leaders, colleagues & karyakartas for their unwavering support over the years.”

  

  Milind Deora with Eknath Shinde

• He serves as a member of the Dean’s Advisory Board at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University.

• Milind is passionate about playing guitar. He started learning it when he was seven years old. In an interview, he said that he practices playing guitar every day.

• His wife Pooja is the daughter of film producer Manmohan Shetty and works as the joint Managing Director at Adlabs Imagica Theme Park and owns Walkwater Media in Mumbai. They met in college and started dating each other. They continued their relationship for three years before getting married in 2008.

• He organizes the Youth Parliament, a yearly visit to the Indian Parliament in New Delhi during the winter session, providing students from Mumbai with the chance to experience a day in the parliament. Approximately eighty students from 20 colleges take part in these parliamentary proceedings each year. The objective was to give youth a firsthand experience of what happens behind the scenes in Lok Sabha.

• He organizes the Milind Deora Soccer Championship, an annual football tournament for school students. This initiative primarily aimed to promote the sport, especially among the underprivileged sections of society. The goal was to expand the talent search by transforming the tournament into a league format for Municipal and Government-funded schools in South Mumbai. In October 2013, Bollywood actor Salman Khan, along with Deora and Aditya Mittal, son of Laxmi Mittal, marked the 5th South Mumbai- Milind Deora Junior Soccer Challenger. The event was organized in partnership with Queens Park Rangers F.C. More than 5000 children, including 4250 from Municipal Schools, representing over 137 schools (including municipal and government-aided ones), took part in the event, making it the largest community football tournament in India.
  

  A collage of Milind Deora during Soccer Championship

• During his tenure as the MLA, he recognized the potential of Mumbai’s Khanoji Angre Lighthouse as an exciting new attraction in the city. Milind extended his efforts to other lighthouses on the Subcontinent. There was a lack of recognition in India regarding the potential of these beautiful and historically significant structures as tourist sites. Milind initiated the process of identifying 15 lighthouses across India that could be transformed into tourist destinations. The Ministries of Tourism and Shipping commenced work on three of these lighthouses – Dolphin’s Nose in Vishakhapatnam, Mahaballipuram Lighthouse, and Khanoji Angre Lighthouse.