Mumbai: Former Maharashtra minister Baba Siddique, who had switched from Congress to the Nationalist Congress Party (Ajit Pawar) earlier this year, was shot dead Saturday in Mumbai’s Bandra East. He was 65.
Two-three rounds were fired at him by three assailants. Two have been detained.
Chief Minister Eknath Shinde told media persons, “This is an extremely unfortunate incident. I have taken information from the police and doctors. Two people have been arrested, one is from UP and another is from Haryana and one accused is absconding. Whatever has happened is tragic. Nobody should take law and order into their hands. I have given orders for strict action to be taken.”
Shinde has announced that Siddique’s last rites will be held with state honours.
Siddique had joined Ajit Pawar’s NCP after a 48-year-long stint with the Congress in February. He was a three-time MLA from the Bandra West constituency.
He was elected as a corporator of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on a Congress ticket in 1992 and 1997. In 1999, he contested Maharashtra assembly elections and won in Bandra West as a Congress candidate, retaining the seat in 2004 and 2009.
Mumbai Congress president Varsha Gaikwad, his former colleague from his previous party, expressed shock at his death.
“Shocked and numbed to hear about the firing at Shri Baba Siddique ji. What is going on in the city? How can this happen? At a loss of words,” Gaikwad wrote on X.
Sharad Pawar, chief of the other NCP faction, questioned the state of law and order in Maharashtra.
“The state’s collapsed law and order situation is a cause for concern. The shooting of former state minister Baba Siddique in Mumbai, the financial capital of the country, is regrettable. If the home minister and the rulers are going to push the cart of the state so mildly, it should be an alarm bell for common people. There is a need not only to investigate this, but also to accept the responsibility and step down from the position of the rulers. A heartfelt tribute to Baba Siddique. Condolences to his family,” Pawar posted on X.
Who was Siddique?
Born in Patna and brought up in Mumbai, Siddique began his political career in his teens with National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), the student wing of Congress.
Siddique was brought into politics and the Congress fold by late actor and former MP Sunil Dutt. He was a close confidant of the Dutts and the two families still share close ties.
Siddique campaigned vigorously for Dutt’s daughter, Priya, when she wasn’t able to campaign for herself in her very first Lok Sabha election in 2005. Priya Dutt was heavily pregnant and had to be rushed to the hospital in the run-up to the election.
Even when Priya later became an unwilling player in Mumbai Congress’ internal factional politics, Siddique is said to have helped her navigate through it.
Reacting to his death, former Congress MP Priya posted on X that she was “shaken and shocked” by Siddique’s tragic death and that he was much more than a political associate for her. “He was family,” she wrote.
“To my father, Baba Siddique was like a son and to me, he was a brother and a dear friend. Throughout my father’s political journey and beyond, he stood steadfast, by his side. When I entered politics, he guided me through its ups and downs, offering his unwavering support,” she added.
During his stint as an MLA, Siddique served as the minister of state for food & civil supplies, labour, food and drug administration (FDA) and consumer protection in the Congress-NCP government. In 2014, he lost to BJP’s Ashish Shelar.
The influential politician from Bandra also had close ties with Bollywood. He was known to be close to Sanjay Dutt and Salman Khan. His annual Iftar parties used to attract high-profile guests, which included political bigwigs, Bollywood personalities and industrialists. Bollywood stars Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan had famously ended their “cold war” at one of his Iftar parties in 2013.
In June 2017, the Enforcement Directorate had raided Siddique’s office and residence in connection with an alleged money laundering case. This raid was conducted based on a police case registered against him in connection with a 2012 project.
The project, comprising seven buildings, was set up in the Bandra Reclamation area under the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) scheme to rehabilitate residents of the Jamaat-e-Jamooria slums in Bandra. The contract was allegedly given to the developers because of Siddique contact.
His son Zeeshan Siddique is a first-time MLA from the Bandra East constituency. It has been speculated that Zeeshan, though a Congress MLA, may join Ajit Pawar’s NCP too, following in his father’s footsteps.
In this year’s Maharashtra Legislative Council elections, it was alleged that Zeeshan was among the Congress MLAs who had cross voted. Zeeshan also was seen sharing the stage with his father at Ajit Pawar’s rally in Bandra.
(Edited by Mannat Chugh)
Also read: Former MLA Baba Siddique shot dead in Mumbai’s Bandra; 2 shooters in police custody