The two are likely to join the Ajit Pawar faction in the next few days. Baba Siddique was a three time MLA from Vandre (Bandra) West and was also a Congress Minister in the Maharashtra government. In 2014 Siddique was defeated by the BJP’s Ashish Shelar following which he chose not to contest in the seat again. In 2019 his son Zeeshan Siddique was given the party ticket from Vandre (Bandra) east which he won by defeating Vishwanath Mahadeshwar of the Shiv Sena.
Baba Siddique has been keen to enter the Rajya Sabha and was exploring getting a ticket from other states like Bihar too, sources said that he may get the NCP’s Rajya Sabha ticket. ET tried to get in touch with Baba Siddique however he was not available for comment. If the father son duo quit the party then this would be the second jolt for the party after two term Congress MP and former Minister Milind Deora quit the party to join the Shiv Sena(Shinde). At least two more Congress leaders, one of them a former Congress MP, is also said to be exploring his ‘options’ outside the party, said a Congress leader. The development comes in the backdrop of two developments the first being the assembly polls in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh Chhattisgarh where the Bharatiya Janata Party managed to win despite the odd, the second being the Congress deciding to take the backseat when it comes to negotiations with the Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray Sena and offering it a majority of seats in Mumbai for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. The development has led to fears that the Congress may not even put up a fight with the UBT during the seat sharing talks for the Assembly polls.
For the Ajit faction, the entry of Baba and Zeeshan could mean the party having a prominent Muslim face especially after the Nawab Malik fiasco. The NCP-Ajit wanted to induct Malik into their faction after Malik’s was released on bail however the Bharatiya Janata Party objected with Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis writing a letter to Ajit Pawar objecting to Malik’s inclusion into the party. The BJP was against Malik joining the Ajit faction as the BJP had raised allegations of Malik having financial irregularities with the Dawood Ibrahim gang for which Malik was in jail for 16 months.
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