Congress received a major setback as Baba Siddique, who joined it as a teenager and remained its member for a span of around 50 years, resigned from the Grand Old party with immediate effect. Speculations are rife he will defect to National Congress Party or NCP’s Ajit Pawar Faction, which was recognised by the Election Commission of India as the real one. Previously, Siddique was a minister in the Congress-NCP coalition when it was in power.
Terming his long political journey as “significant”, Baba Siddique expressed gratitude to “everyone, who has been a part of this journey” and stated, “There’s a lot I would have liked to express”, however chose not to express as “some things are better left unsaid”.
Before Siddique, former union minister and senior Congress party leader Milind Deora had left the party on January 15 to join the Eknath Shinde Faction of Shiv Sena.
Siddique, a three-time MLA from Mumbai’s Bandra West Assembly constituency, was defeated by Bharatiya Janata Party or BJP’s Ashish Shelar in 2014 Assembly polls.
Multiple locations belonging to Siddique and others came under the ambit of the Enforcement Directorate or ED raid on May 31 in 2017. The move was taken over his alleged involvement in the financial irregularities in the slum rehabilitation project after Bandra Police, on direction of a local court, filed the first information report in 2014. He was quizzed by the central investigation agency for around eight hours on June 9.
