Baba Siddique's assassination one of the biggest political murders in Mumbai history

Mumbai: Political killings are not common to Mumbai, the financial capital of India.

Thus, the assassination of former minister and NCP leader Baba Siddique (66) has come as a shocker. Before joining the Ajit Pawar-led NCP ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, he had been with the Congress for little less than five decades.

While it would take some time to know the reasons behind the murder, the incident has rattled Maharashtra's political class - irrespective of which side of the fence one is sitting on.

The Mumbai metropolitan region (MMR) comprising the twin districts of Mumbai City and Mumbai Suburban, as well as neighbouring districts of Palghar, Thane and Raigad attracts people across India and politics and dealings here are different from other places.

"In the last three decades in MMR we have not seen MPs and MLAs being killed except for two big cases," says an official associated with the intelligence gathering network. "However, there had been several incidents of local leaders and corporators being attacked," the official added, pointing out that the majority of these have arisen because of property disputes.

The two cases in the last 25 to 30 years - in which big politicians were killed are those of Dr Datta Samant (January, 16 1997) and Pramod Mahajan (May 3, 2006).

Dr Samant, popularly known as Doctorsaheb, led the textile mill workers movement and the 1982 Bombay mills' strike. He represented Mumbai South Central in the eighth Lok Sabha as an Independent. After the incident, the name of Chhota Rajan had cropped up. The gangster was acquitted in the case.

Mahajan, a BJP leader and former union minister who was a key leader during the days of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-Lal Krishna Advani government, was shot by his brother Pravin Mahajan following a dispute on 22 April, 2006 and passed away a few days later.

In the nineties, Mumbai (then Bombay) saw the murders of BJP leader and former MLAs Ramdas Nayak (Kherwadi) and Prem Kumar Sharma (Khetwadi), as well as that of Maulana Ziauddin Bukhari.

The first such political murder was the killing of Krishna Desai, who was eliminated on 5 June 1970.