Singh favours OBC status to Jats ahead of Mant assembly bypoll

"Congress party is in favour of the inclusion of the Jat community of Uttar Pradesh in the central list of OBCs. I and the RLD chief Ajit Singh had met Home Minister P Chidambaram sometime back in this regard. We support the Jat reservation under the OBC category," Singh, who is AICC in-charge for Uttar Pradesh, told reporters here.

He said the Congress was making efforts to ensure that the Jat community of Uttar Pradesh was included in the central list of OBCs.

"Home Minister has assured that he is waiting for the report of the National Commission for Backward Classes and will take steps as soon as it comes. Ajit Singh had talked to the Home Minister yesterday as well. He said the Home Minister was very positive. We are hopeful that the Centre will take a decision very soon," he said.

After meeting Chidambaram yesterday, the RLD chief had said that he discussed with the Home Minister the issue of providing OBC status to Jat community for getting Central government jobs.

The Mant seat was won in the 2012 assembly election by the RLD chief's son Jayant Choudhary, who has now vacated the seat.

The party has now fielded Yogesh Nauhwar from the seat who faces a tough challenge from Trinamool Congress' Brahmin candidate Shyam Sundar Sharma, who has represented the area a number of times in the past and SP's candidate Sanjay Lathar, believed to be a close confidante of UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav.