Mathura: The prestige of two stalwarts namely Jayanta Chowdhary of RLD and Shyam Sundar Sharma of Trinamool Congress are at stake in the Mat Assembly constituency of this district which would go to polls on February 28. Though there are 13 candidates in the election fray, the main battle is between Chaudhary and Sharma. "In spite of being Member of Parliament, Jayant Chaudhary decided to contest Assembly elections since a hung Assembly is expected.

RLD then would be in a better position to bargain for Chief Ministership," Chaudhary Dharm Singh, All India General Secretary of RLD said.

COMMERCIAL BREAK
SCROLL TO CONTINUE READING

Jayant is facing a tough opponent in the form of Shyam Sundar Sharma, who has six consecutive wins as legislator to his credit.

A former minister of UP Cabinet, Sharma recently joined the Trinmool Congress as he was denied a BSP ticket.

The Trinamool Congress had almost made it a prestige issue and its four ministers, including Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi, has so far addressed several meetings in support of Sharma in the Constituency.

While Jayant is banking more on Jat votes which form around 25 per cent of the electorate, Sharma`s vote bank is spread in different castes.

BSP candidate Ram Pal Singh cannot be overlooked since his party has its own vote bank. Singh who contested as RLD candidate polled 35,394 votes against 46,932 votes polled by winning candidate Shyam Sundar Sharma in 2007 Assembly elections.

Singh is likely to cause damage to Jayant also since he not only contested last time as RLD candidate but was an important office bearer of RLD before he joined BSP.

PTI