MUMBAI: One of the oldest and most prominent minority face of the Mumbai Congress representing the Bandra region Baba Siddique has said that he has resigned from the Congress after being a member of the party for nearly five decades. 

Siddique who also served as a minister when the Congress-NCP coalition was in power posted on X saying, "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." "There's a lot I would have liked to express but as they say some things are better left unsaid. I thank everyone who has been a part of this journey," he added hinting that everything was not well in the party's state and city unit.

This is the second big exit of important leaders from Congress after Milind Deora son of Murli Deora who exited the party recently after his family's decades-old association with Congress and joined the Shiv Sena led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. 

Siddique's son Zeeshan is currently a Congress MLA from Bandra (East) in Mumbai and it is widely expected he will also be quitting the party and according to news reports, they may be joining Ajit Pawar faction's Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) which was declared as the real NCP by the Election Commission of India (ECI) recently. The father-son duo had met Pawar on 1st February fueling the speculation. State NCP president Sunil Tatkare is quoted in some media as saying the Siddique is joining NCP on February 10 and his entry is unconditional without any commitments. 

Siddique served as a Municipal Corporator earlier for two consecutive terms (1992–1997) and was the MLA for three consecutive terms in 1999, 2004 and 2009, and had also served as a Minister of State for Food & Civil Supplies, Labour and FDA from 2004–08.