Baba Siddiqui joins Ajit Pawar’s NCP days after quitting Congress


Days after quitting the Congress, Baba Siddique on Saturday joined Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). Siddique had resigned from the Congress party on February 8.

“Now it is done. Ab kya rona, jab chidiya chug gayi khet. It was done with dhol, not quietly. When you are not being listened to, you should move to the side…I have a lot to say, but someone should answer. I am sad but happy too. I am not thick skinned,” he said after joining the NCP.

Earlier on Thursday, Siddiqui said that his journey with Congress, which started when he was just a teenager, has come to an end after 48 years.

“I joined the Indian National Congress party as a young teenager and it has been a significant journey lasting 48 years. Today I resign from the primary membership of the Indian National Congress Party @INCIndia with immediate effect,” he said.

The former Congress leader said that there was a lot he would have liked to express but added, “some things are better left unsaid”.

“I thank everyone who has been a part of this journey,” Baba Siddique posted on X.

This was second high profile ouster from the Maharashtra Congress in less than a month.

On January 14, Senior Congress leader and former Union minister Milind Deora joined the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena after resigning from the grand old party.

Deora, who severed ties with the Congress after a prolonged association with the party, joined the Shiv Sena, saying the grand old party has just one goal to speak against whatever Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks or does.

Taking a swipe at the Congress, Deora said, “The same party that used to offer constructive suggestions to this country on how to take the country forward has only one goal today – to speak against whatever Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks or does.”