NCP leader Baba Siddique, who was shot dead weeks before Maharashtra Assembly election, was known for his close ties with Bollywood.
Siddique, 66, was shot multiple times outside his son’s office in Mumbai on Saturday night. He later succumbed to his wounds at the city’s Lilavati Hospital.
The political leader was known for throwing lavish Iftar parties and was also close to several Bollywood superstars.
Baba Siddique played peacemaker between one-time warring superstars Salman Khan and Shah Rukh Khan at what was one of the most viral moments of 2013 before the social media rage kicked in.
He was a protege, even a second son, to cinema veteran Sunil Dutt.
In a remembrance post this year, Siddique had said, “Remembering my Mentor Shri. Sunil Dutt ji on his Death Anniversary. Your guidance has left an everlasting imprint on our lives!”
It was his connection to Dutt that helped Siddique secure an MLA ticket in 1999 from Bandra West, a seat he retained for three back-to-back terms. Not only politics, former actor Dutt also introduced the political leader to the world of Bollywood.
After the news of Siddique's death broke, Dutt's son, actor Sanjay Dutt was one of the first celebrities to visit the late politician at the Lilavati Hospital where he was declared dead on Saturday night.
Salman and Shilpa Shetty, along with her businessman-husband Raj Kundra, were also photographed reaching the hospital to meet Siddique's family.
His grand iftar parties were a starry affair attended by right from the Khans to filmmaker Kabir Khan, celebrity designer Manish Malhotra, and actors.
Actresses Urmila Matondkar, Katrina Kaif, Huma Qureshi, Sonu Sood, Sushant Singh Rajput, Ankita Lokhande, Kiara Advani, R Madhavan, and Aditi Rao Hydari were frequent attendees of Baba Siddique's iftar parties.
Baba Siddique, a popular figure in Bollywood circles, earned praise for supplying life-saving medicines to patients during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Siddique joined the Indian National Congress (INC) as a teenager back in 1977. Even when he became a part of the Ajit Pawar-led National Congress Party (NCP) in February, he acknowledged the role of Dutt in his political career.
Salman also endorsed Congress' Siddique when he spent an afternoon in Ahmedabad with the then BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi on the kite-flying festival of Uttarayan.
"My heart goes out to Zeeshan Siddique and the entire family- May god give them strength to brave this difficult time. The perpetrators of this horrific crime must be brought to justice," actor Riteish Deshmukh wrote on X.
