Baba Siddique, the leader of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), was shot dead by three gunmen in Mumbai on Saturday.
“The Mumbai police head informed me that two people had been arrested. One is from Uttar Pradesh, while the other from Haryana. The third assailant has escaped, but police are pursuing him,” chief minister Eknath Shinde told HT.
Initial reports suggest that three people fired at Baba Siddique outside his son Zeeshan’s office in Bandra East. He was rushed to Mumbai’s Lilawati Hospital wherein he succumbed to his injuries.
“Two to three rounds were fired. Further probe is underway as teams have rushed to the area,” a police official told PTI.
In February this year, Siddique had ended his five-decade-long association with Congress and joined Ajit Pawar-led NCP.
“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 had written in an X post.
Who was Baba Siddique?
Siddique was a three-term MLA from Mumbai’s Bandra West assembly constituency. He lost the seat to Ashish Shelar of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2014 assembly polls.
Baba Siddique served as minister of state for food and civil supplies, labour, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and consumer protection in the erstwhile Congress-undivided NCP government in early 2000.
His political career began as a teenager when he joined the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), the student wing of the Indian National Congress.
Shortly after, he was elected as the Municipal Corporator in the Mumbai Municipal Corporation. He became an MLA in 1999, and was re-elected from the Bandra West seat in 2004 and 2009.
Get the latest news updates and stay informed with FELA NEWS!
Source: HT