Prayagraj: Former MLA Mujtaba Siddiqui has been announced as Samajwadi Party candidate for Phulpur by-election here on Wednesday. After the Samajwadi Party high command declared Siddiqui as the party candidate for the Phulpur bypoll, the district unit of the Samajwadi Party on Wednesday claimed to have started preparations with the objective of winning the Phulpur seat. Party district spokesman Daan Bahadur Madhur told TOI that, "Mujtaba Siddiqui, the candidate declared by the party, is a three-time MLA.
In 2022 state assembly elections, Siddiqui was also a candidate from Phulpur on a Samajwadi Party ticket." In 2022 elections, Siddiqui received 100,865 votes and was defeated by BJP candidate Praveen Patel by just 2,765 votes. After Praveen Patel was elected as a Member of Parliament from the Phulpur Lok Sabha seat in 2024 parliamentary polls, the SP nominated Mujtaba Siddiqui again in the by-election for the vacant seat.
Mujtaba Siddiqui is also a native of Veerkaji village in Phulpur tehsil. After studying LLB at Allahabad University, he became active in village politics. In 2002, he won the assembly elections from Soraon assembly seat on a Bahujan Samaj Party ticket and remained an MLA from there continuously until 2012.
In 2012, he contested from Pratappur but lost. In 2017, Siddiqui became an MLA from Pratappur again on a BSP ticket, but he left the BSP in 2020 and joined the Samajwadi Party. In the 2022 state assembly elections, the Samajwadi Party fielded him from Phul.
