 "Ashok Chavan")
Former Maharashtra minister and Congress' Muslim face in Mumbai, Baba Siddique, who quit the Congress earlier this month and joined the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), reacted to Ashok Chavan's exit, saying his former party should treat this as a wake-up call.
Ashok Chavan, a former Maharashtra chief minister, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday. He said he has joined the BJP to take forward Prime Minister Narendra Modi's development agenda.
While Chavan has not explained why he left the Congress, Siddique claims that people are feeling suffocated in the party.
"Ashok Chavan called me, and I told him that we are going to meet soon on the way ahead. More people are going to leave because when a person feels suffocated, he tries to find a way. It is a wake-up call for Congress, but I don't think they are going to wake up," he said.
Slamming the Congress, Siddique said that the grand old party lives in La-La land.
"They don't see the writing on the wall. It's unfortunate for a party formed in 1885 that people are leaving like this. There must be a reason why people are leaving Congress," he said.
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When asked why the leaders left the Congress party, Siddique stated it was because of decisions made by the high command.
"As I think, this is not happening because of any specific leader. This is because of the decision taken by the high command collectively. The people who are not elected decide for the party. There are even some people who haven't fought the election ever," he said.
Earlier this year, Milind Deora also quit the Congress party and joined Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena.
