Baba Siddique, former Maharashtra Minister, announced his resignation from Congress on Thursday. He had been associated with the party for 48 years. After quitting Congress, Siddique said that he has moved on as he was ‘not needed’ in the grand old party anymore. The 66-year-old leader is likely to join the Ajit Pawar-led NCP. He is the second senior Mumbai Congress leader to leave the party in the last one month after former Union minister Milind Deora joined the Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena in January.

“I had to take a decision and I have taken a decision. When you don’t understand something and it doesn’t improve despite saying again and again, you need to understand that you are not needed anymore and you should move on. So, I have moved on,” Baba Siddique said.

Who is Baba Siddique?

Siddique is a prominent Muslim face of the Mumbai Congress. His full name is Baba Ziauddin Siddique. Siddique is also known for his grand Iftar parties which are attended by top Bollywood stars. Siddique is the man behind uniting Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan. A five-year-long cold war between the two actors ended in Siddique’s Iftaar party in 2013.

He served as a minister when the Congress-NCP coalition was in power in Maharashtra. Siddique’s son Zeeshan is a Congress MLA from Bandra (East) in Mumbai. During the peak of COVID-19 pandemic, Siddique had earned praise for arranging highly sought-after medicines for needy patients.

Siddique was an MLA for three consecutive terms in 1999, 2004 and 2009, and had also served as a minister of state for food and civil supplies, labour and FDA, (2004-08) and had also served as a municipal corporator earlier for two consecutive terms (1992-1997). He has also served as the chairperson and senior vice president of the Mumbai Regional Congress Committee and parliamentary board of the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee.

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Meet Baba Siddique, former Congress leader, who helped end Shah Rukh Khan-Salman Khan fight