Baba Siddique’s Son, Zeeshan Joins Ajit Pawar’s NCP

Mumbai: Days before the state votes in an Assembly election, Zeeshan Siddique, son of former Maharashtra minister Baba Siddique, who was shot dead earlier this month, joined the Ajit Pawar-led faction of the Nationalist Congress Party Friday morning, according to NDTV.

Expelled by the Congress in August, after the party reported cross-voting in legislative council polls, Siddique will defend the Vandre (East) seat he won in 2019 from Varun Sardesai, the nephew of ex-Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, whose Shiv Sena faction is allied with the Congress and the Sharad Pawar NCP as part of the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance.

In his first comments after joining the Pawar NCP, he hit out at the MVA, accusing them of abandoning him after his father’s murder. “This is an emotional day for me and my family. I am thankful to Ajit Pawar, Praful Patel, and Sunil Tatkare for believing in me in these tough times.”

“I have got the nomination from Bandra East, I am sure that with the love and support of all the people, I will definitely win Bandra East ye again…” Siddique said.

Notably, Siddique had slammed the Congress on Thursday after the MVA named another politician as its Vandre (East) candidate. “I heard old friends have announced their candidates from Vandre East. Supporting was never in their nature,” he said in a caustic post on X.

“Maintain relations with those who give respect, no point in surrounding yourself with a crowd, now the people will decide,” he wrote in early clues he would soon fly under a different political banner.

The Vandre East seat has gone to Uddhav Thackeray’s party as part of a seat-sharing deal between MVA allies, each of whom will contest 85 seats, with the remaining 33 to be divided among smaller parties.