The Congress on Wednesday joined hands with the Mahan Dal in Uttar Pradesh, two days after its general secretaries in charge of the State, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Jyotiraditya Scindia, took over the election campaign.
Both leaders described it as a step towards politics of inclusion. Ms. Vadra said they would contest the elections together.
The Mahan Dal is a regional force based in western U.P. and claims a presence in the backward caste Maurya-Shakya-Saini communities.
The Congress has allied with the Mahan Dal in the past, in the 2009 and 2014 Lok Sabha elections. In 2014, the party was allotted three seats as part of an alliance with the Congress but forfeited deposits on all three — Badaun, Etah and Nagina.
Mahan Dal president Keshav Dev Maurya said he hoped that if the Congress came to power in 2019 it would implement sub-categorisation of Other Backward Caste and Scheduled Caste quotas so that communities deprived of the facility are benefited.
Mr. Maurya, interestingly, targeted the SP and BSP, accusing them of not giving enough representation to Dalit and OBC castes apart from their own.
“They mobilised OBC and Dalits in the name of representation but forgot about it after coming to power,” Mr. Maurya said.