Mumbai, Oct 14 (PTI) Mumbai Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam, who had distanced himself from the party campaign for the Maharashtra assembly polls claiming a "conspiracy" against the leaders close to Rahul Gandhi, on Monday slammed his bete noire Milind Deora over his absence from Gandhi's rallies.

Both Deora and Nirupam, former presidents of Mumbai Congress, had stayed away from Gandhi's rallies in Mumbai on Sunday.

"Speculations and suspicions about my absence from rahul gandhi's mumbai rallies are meaningless. Due to an important family function I was busy the whole day, rather till late night. Had informed him in advance. He is my leader and he will be always the same for me. But why was nikamma absent," Nirupam tweeted in an apparent reference to Deora.

When asked about the tweet, Mumbai Congress president Eknath Gaikwad said he was unaware of the tweet.

On absence of Nirupam and Deora from Gandhi's programmes, Gaikwad said, "Nirupam's daughter got engaged on Sunday while Deora is out of the country".

Meanwhile, sources close to Deora said that party veteran Sushilkumar Shinde, who is a member of the disciplinary committee, has admonished Nirupam for his public statements.

They said Nirupam was told to stay away from meetings of Gandhi and other leaders of the party.

Shinde was unavailable for comment.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)