Baba Siddiqui leaves Congress, likely to join NCP

Mumbai, 8 February (HS): Congress leader and former Minister of State Baba Siddiqui has resigned from the primary membership of the party on Thursday morning. There is speculation that Siddiqui may join Ajit Pawar’s NCP. However, Siddiqui’s MLA son Zeeshan Siddiqui has not yet decided to leave the Congress. Before the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, Baba Siddiqui tweeted the information about leaving Congress and said, ‘I had joined the Indian National Congress Party in my youth. It was a long and important journey of almost 48 years but today I have decided to resign from the primary membership of the Congress Party with immediate effect. There is so much I want to express but some things are better left silent. I thank everyone who supported my journey.”

Baba Siddiqui is a former MLA of Bandra West Assembly constituency. He was first elected to the Assembly in the year 1999. After this he won in the year 2004 and 2009. He was Minister of State from 2004 to 2008. Before becoming MLA, he had been a councilor twice. He was first elected to the Mumbai Municipal Corporation in the year 1992. In the year 1997, he also won the Municipal Corporation elections.

Murali Deora’s son Milind had also recently left the Congress and joined Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena. At the same time, there was strong talk of Baba Siddiqui’s MLA son Zeeshan Siddiqui and MLA Amin Shaikh leaving the party. At that time both of them had said that they would remain in the Congress party only. But a few days ago Zeeshan Siddiqui met Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar. Zeeshan Siddiqui had described this meeting as a meeting regarding the work of the assembly constituency, but it is being told that it is Zeeshan Siddiqui who has made a place in NCP by meeting Ajit Pawar.

There is a possibility that very soon Baba Siddiqui and Zeeshan Siddiqui may join NCP. It is being told that after the arrest of NCP’s Muslim face Nawab Malik by ED, the search for a Muslim face in NCP is going on. Ajit Pawar intends to complete this search through Baba Siddiqui. For this reason, there is a possibility that Baba Siddiqui may join NCP in the near future.