Bhopal: Senior advocate Sajid Hussain Siddiqui, who built the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) in Madhya Pradesh from the ground up and served as the first president of its state unit, died on the intervening night of July 18 and 19. He was buried at the Jahangirabad graveyard, with a large gathering joining the funeral procession.
A practising lawyer in Bhopal for decades, Siddiqui was known for combining professional standing at the bar with sustained political and social work on behalf of minorities and marginalised communities.
At the bar, Siddiqui handled a wide range of cases but was most associated with matters of public importance, working on civil liberties, prisoners’ rights, communal harmony and access to justice for the poor.
Colleagues credited his integrity and legal ability for the standing he held within the local legal fraternity.
Siddiqui was among the leaders who set up the SDPI’s Madhya Pradesh organisation soon after the party was founded nationally on June 21, 2009, at a convention at the FICCI auditorium in Delhi. Before that, he had headed the state unit of the Samajwadi Adhivakta Sabha.
In October 2009, he was elected president of the party’s Madhya Pradesh unit while already holding the post of national vice-president and later served as national treasurer and as a long-serving member of the party’s National Working Committee.
In the party’s early years, he provided direction at both the state and national levels. Under his charge, the state unit held its first executive meetings in Bhopal, entered local body elections, set up candidate screening committees and ran cadre training programmes. He travelled across the state to build district committees in Bhopal, Indore, Ujjain, Jabalpur, Gwalior, Sheopur and other places, promoting the party’s slogan of “Freedom from Hunger and Freedom from Fear.”
Siddiqui contested the 2014 Lok Sabha election from the Bhopal seat as the SDPI candidate, listed as Master Sajid Siddiqui. He did not win, but remained active in electoral and civic politics.
He also took part in fact-finding missions with national SDPI leaders on questions of constitutional rights and communal harmony, and repeatedly drew attention to what he described as the shrinking political representation of Muslims in Madhya Pradesh, calling for greater unity among marginalised groups.
Advocate Sharfuddin Ahmad, Secretary General of the AILC in Delhi, condoled the death, describing Siddiqui as among the tallest figures the party had produced and a widely respected social activist known for his warmth and dependable ties across communities in Bhopal.
Siddiqui is remembered by party colleagues as an organiser who gave the SDPI its early footing in Madhya Pradesh and as a lawyer who saw the law as a means to defend the rights of those without a voice.
