“I had to take a decision,” says Baba Siddique after quitting Congress

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], February 8 (ANI): Baba Siddiqui, former Maharashtra minister who resigned from the Congress party on Thursday, said that he has moved on as he was ‘not needed’ in the grand old party anymore.

“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.

Speaking to reporters here, the former minister said that it is better to step aside when things are not done despite keeping forth your views time and again.

When asked if he would join the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), he said that he would take decision in this regard on February 10.

“I will make a decision on 10th February. You will see where I’m going,” he said.

Baba Siddique, the former Maharashtra Minister, announced his resignation from the primary membership of the Congress on Thursday.

He had been associated with the grand old party for 48 years.

Meanwhile, Mumbai Congress chief Varsha Eknath Gaikwad has hit out at Baba Siddique and said that his resignation will not make any difference to the grand old party.

“People are changing parties like clothes. He has gone for his own selfish reasons. What to talk about those who are not of his party and ideas. Today, when Congress needed him the most, he left Congress. However, the people come and go in Congress. Our party is an idea, and ideas never die. Congress party will work more strongly in the coming days,” she said.

Baba Siddique’s son Zeeshan Siddique is currently a Congress MLA from Bandra (East) in Mumbai.

Baba 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.