Nagpur: Putting an end to talks of Congress MLA Zeeshan Siddique exiting the party ahead of the Maharashtra Assembly Elections 2024, State Congress President Nana Patole confirmed that Siddique has been expelled from the party.
During his media interaction in Nagpur on Friday, Patole was asked about the resignation of MLA Jitesh Antapurkar. To which Patole responded that there should be no discussions on leaders like Zeeshan Siddique and Antapurkar who have been expelled from the party. Earlier, Patole had said that there will be strong actions taken by Congress against MLAs who were involved in cross-voting during state legislative elections.
Ahead of the state assembly elections, Zeeshan Siddique is expected to follow his father's footsteps and join the NCP led by Ajit Pawar, while Antapurkar is expected to join the BJP.
Speaking with The Free Press Journal recently, Nana Patole had said that he has confirmed reports of cross-voting done by Zeeshan Siddique during the Maharashtra State Legislative elections and there are also other related matters which go against Siddhique and that the party will soon decide if he should be reconsidered as MLA candidate.
Siddique is the sitting MLA from Mumbai's Bandra East constituency. After he joined Ajit Pawar's Jan Sanman Yatra in Mumbai on August 19, it was confirmed that Siddique is on his way to join the NCP Ajit Pawar faction.
Zeeshan Siddique lately has been open about the discrimination he faced within the party. It was in February this year, that a long-term Congressman Baba Siddique, Zeeshan's father, exited the party and joined the Ajit Pawar-led NCP. Siddique had indicated then that Zeeshan would be next to quit the grand old party.
After he joined Ajit Pawar's yatra in Mumbai recently, Zeeshan Siddique had highlighted that he has been sidelined from the Congress and his supporters were denied nomination forms.
