UP elections: Jayant Chaudhary to contest elections from Mat constituency for Rashtriya Lok Dal

LUCKNOW: Jayant Chaudhary is a rare political scion who has jumped into the rough and tumble of assembly polls, unlike most other party chiefs and his counterparts in other parties in Uttar Pradesh who prefer to play directors rather than actors.

The 33-year-old Lok Sabha member from Mathura has been fielded as the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) candidate from Mat constituency. Son of party chief and Civil aviation minister Ajit Singh, Chaudhary will face veteran MLA and former minister Shyam Sunder Sharma who is contesting on a Bahujan Samaj Party ticket.

RLD, which has tied up with Congress, is contesting 45 seats in the upcoming Uttar Pradesh polls and its best case scenario involves a fractured mandate whereby it gets to play a decisive role with its clutch of MLAs.

"Jayant Chaudhary's presence will electrify the cadres as they will sense he is contesting for gaining power in the state and not just to become an MLA. If RLD is part of the next government, he will in all likelihood be made a minister," said Hasib Siddiqui, a political observer.

Chaudhary, a former investment banker who did his MSc from the London School of Economics, has already been playing a key role in party affairs.

He is said to have been instrumental in refusing senior leader Anuradha Chaudhary a ticket, following which she switched over to the Samajwadi Party.

While Chaudhary has submitted himself to the electoral test, both SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and his son Akhilesh Yadav, who are sitting MPs, have decided against contesting the assembly elections. So has BSP chief Mayawati, who has been the chief minister since 2007 as an MLC.