Caravan News

MUMBAI — In the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly, 27-year-old Zeeshan Baba Siddique is the youngest. Winner from the Vandre East constituency in Mumbai, Zeeshan is one of the 44 Congress MLAs in the new Assembly, elections for which were held last month.

On Wednesday (Nov. 27), Zeeshan took oath on the floor of the Assembly along with other MLAs. He took oath in fluent English. At the end, he said: “Jai Hind, Jai Maharashtra, Jai Bhim, Allah Hafiz”.

After doing Bachelor of Management Studies from Smt. Mithibai Motiram Kundnani College of Commerce and Economics at University of Mumbai in 2013, Zeeshan went to London where he did masters in Global Management, People Management and Leadership from Regents Business School of Regents University in 2015.

A businessman, Zeeshan plunged into politics and in his first attempt he won the Assembly poll last month. He has no criminal cases pending against him. He declared his wealth in his election affidavit – total assets worth around Rs 9 crore (Rs 8,98,56,975) with liabilities of Rs 76,06,391.

General Secretary of the Mumbai Youth Congress, Zeeshan said this line after he was declared winner from the Vandre East seat on October 24: “Ever since I was a 4-year-old kid, I had a dream. Today when I’m 27 and the youngest MLA I see myself close to living the dream. Thank you Vandre East and all the amazing people who came out to vote for me, my beautiful family, senior leaders, friends, supporters. I am today because of you.”

There were 13 candidates in the fray for the seat. His main rivals were candidates from Shiv Sena, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena and AIMIM. He got 38337 votes and won the seat, restricting Shiv Sena candidate at 32547 votes.

In the new Assembly where the alliance of Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress proved majority in floor test on Saturday, there are 10 Muslim MLAs – one from Shiv Sena, two from NCP, three from Congress and two each from Samajwadi Party and AIMIM.