Dutt's the way the cookie crumbles

Samajwadi Party's Sanjay Dutt will campaign against good friend Baba Siddique of the Congress

Samajwadi Party's Sanjay Dutt will campaign against good friend Baba Siddique of the Congress

Most of us expect our friends to be loyal and promise the same in return. But Sanjay Dutt has never been the regular guy.
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The actor has decided to campaign for a Samajwadi Party (SP) candidateu00a0 Advocate Rizwan Merchant, who has been pitted against his long-time friend, Congress's Baba Siddique in the Assembly polls.

Siddique is contesting from the Bandra (West) constituency.

Pillar of strength

Siddique has been with the Dutt family through tough times like Sanjay's incarceration and the subsequent trial in the 1993 bomb blast cases.

In fact, Siddique faced flak for supporting the Dutts, especially because he was a state minister.

However, all that seems to have been forgotten with Sanjay campaigning for Merchant.

YEH DOSTI: Sanjay Dutt and Baba Siddique have been friends for several years.

SP workers defended Sanjay's decision, saying that he is the party's general secretary and it's his responsibility to campaign for allu00a0 candidates.

Sanjay also reiterated that Siddique was his brother. "Politics cannot come in the way of friendship.

During the Lok Sabha elections, no candidate was up against my sister Priya and I did not campaign against her.

But the same thing cannot be extended to everyone. Besides, I belong to a different political party," he said.

Sanjay, The Neta

Earlier this year, Sanjay Dutt joined the Samajwadi Party a move that shocked his family, considering that his sister Priya was a Congress MP as was his father Sunil Dutt.

He would later say that when he had stood by Priya, it was "as a brother, not a politician". In April, he became the SP's general secretary when the Supreme Court did not allow him to contest the Lok Sabha polls.

The Other Side

Baba Siddique has no complaints against Dutt. He said, "This is a democracy and Sanjay can campaign for anybody. He is a like a brother and will continue to be so. I hope he returns to the party where his father belonged."