Mahan Dal enters fray with Congress

NOIDA: Three OBC strongholds in western UP — Etah, Badayun, Nagina — are being targeted by the Mahan Dal, to cut vote shares of the BJP, BSP and Samajwadi Party (SP). The party will field candidates from these three seats which have been handed over to them by the Congress as per a seat-sharing arrangement.
The Mahan Dal claims to have the support of a range of OBCs, including Mauryas, Khushwahas, Shakyas, Sainis and Kambojs, and hopes to mobilize them to trounce other OBC leaders in the region.
In the 2009 elections, while the Etah seat had been won by OBC leader and former UP chief minister Kalyan Singh, the Badayun and Nagina seats had gone to Dharmendra Yadav and Yashvir Singh, of the Sanajwadi Party.
Party sources informed that its base in western UP has been built mostly around members of the Saini caste besides voters belonging to OBCs who generally voted for the BJP and BSP. It claimed that in the Bareilly zone too, OBC votes that went to the SP, the BSP and the BJP would be lost to the Mahan Dal.