Congress presence helps RLD pick in UP's Mathura

The Lok Sabha constituency of Mathura in Uttar Pradesh, which goes to polls on April 18, is witnessing a pitched battle between sitting BJP MP Hema Malini and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) candidate Narendra Singh.

Even as the Congress has fielded Mahesh Pathak as its candidate from the constituency, political observers say it was nothing but a "tactical move" by the grand old party to help increase the party's upper caste vote share and in turn help the SP-BSP-RLD alliance ultimately. It could be noted that Congress' Manvendra Singh had won the Lok Sabha seat in 2004 elections.

In 2014 elections, BJP's Hema Malini had won the Lok Sabha constituency by defeating RLD leader Jayant Chaudhary by a whopping margin of 3,30,743 votes. Chaudhary had won the Lok Sabha seat in 2009.

Mathura LS constituency, with an estimated 20% of Jat population, is known to be the stronghold of Jat voters. The other dominating castes in the constituency are – Thakurs, Brahmins, Muslims, Vaishyas and SCs. An estimated 70 per cent population in the constituency lives in the rural areas.