Prayagraj: Although the date of by-election for Phulpur assembly seat has not been announced, but politics has heated up when Congress leaders staked claim on it. However, within 24 hours, SP state president Shyamlal Pal made it clear that Congress is included in the Indi alliance, but only SP candidate will contest in the Phulpur by-election.

In the 2022 elections for the Phulpur assembly seat, BJP's Praveen Patel defeated SP's Mujtaba Siddiqui by 2732 votes in a close contest. But in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, BJP declared Praveen Patel as the candidate from the Phulpur parliamentary seat. Praveen Patel won the election. In such a situation, the Phulpur assembly seat became vacant. Now a by-election is to be held here. It has not been announced yet whether the SP candidate or the Congress candidate will contest from the Indi alliance.

The Congress had staked its claim

SP leaders, office bearers and workers were confident that the party candidate would contest from this seat, but Congress state organisation minister Anil Yadav, who came here on Saturday, created a stir by saying that Congress would claim this seat on behalf of the alliance.

The reason given was that this has been a traditional seat of the Congress. In such a situation, the case will be put forward strongly before the top leadership. However, Samajwadi Party's state president Shyamlal Pal, who came here on Sunday, made it clear that only the SP candidate will contest the Phulpur by-election. There is no doubt about this.

In the last Lok Sabha elections, SP got more votes than BJP in this assembly constituency. In the assembly elections held in the year 2022, party candidate Mujtaba Siddiqui was defeated by a few votes. In such a situation, this seat is with SP under the Indi alliance.