Congress MLA Zeeshan Siddique joins Ajit Pawar's Yatra

Mumbai: Congress MLA Zeeshan Siddiqui - who has been sidelined by the party - attended the Jan Samman Yatra led by NCP President and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Monday.

Zeeshan is an MLA form Vandre East.

Zeeshan's father Baba Siddique, a former minister in the erstwhile Democratic Front government, had left the Congress and joined the NCP ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.

Zeeshan is already under the scanner of the Congress leadership in the wake of cross-voting by half dozen MLAs during the recent Maharashtra Legislative Council polls.

Zeeshan now used the NCP banner to slam the party that he now represents.

Action by the Congress high-command has not been ruled out against the first-time MLA.

Zeeshan said that since the Jan Samman Yatra was passing through his constituency he thought it proper to support the Mukhya Mantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana. "The scheme would help the women of the state," he said on the occasion of Raksha-bandhan.

Zeeshan slammed the Maharashtra Congress saying that the party is not calling him for meetings.

"Just a few days ago, Mumbai Congress President and North Central MP Prof Varsha Gaikwad held a Nyay rally. It was in my constituency. However, neither was I consulted nor invited," he said.

According to him, the Congress has already started distributing nomination forms, however, when his representative went to the party office, he was denied.

"Since the time, I became an MLA, I was facing issues...I was told that it was (then) Chief Minister's area," he said referring to Uddhav Thackeray, who headed the erstwhile Maha Vikas Aghadi government.

Thackeray's bungalow Matoshree falls in the Vandre East seat.

However, Zeeshan made it clear that he was with the Congress.