Congress will fight 2019 polls in UP with full force: Rahul

Hours after the SP and BSP announced their alliance without the Congress in Uttar Pradesh for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Saturday said his party will fight the elections in the state with full force.

Addressing a press conference in Dubai, Gandhi said he has "tremendous respect" for the leaders of the two parties and "they have a right to do what they want to do".

"The BSP and SP have every right to have an alliance. I think the Congress party has tremendous amount to offer to the people of Uttar Pradesh so we will do our best as the Congress party and we will fight with full capacity to spread our ideology."
He said the Congress party might give a surprise or two in the Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh "about what the party is capable of doing and to mobilise people."
Rejecting suggestions that not being part of the SP-BSP alliance was a setback for the Congress, he said, "I won't be disappointed about the BSP-SP alliance as long as the BJP does not come to power."
"They have said some wrong things about the Congress, but we accept it. Because that's how we work."
Gandhi said it does not matter if his party fights separately or together with the SP and BSP, because the end result would be the same the BJP won't get their seats
"I would have made a very similar comment if it had been a man. Do not impose your sexism on me. I am very clear that the prime minister should have delivered that defence but he did not have the guts."
Attacking the Modi government on rising intolerance, Gandhi said like the UAE, which had declared 2019 as the 'Year of Tolerance', India also believes and celebrates tolerance but "there is a little bit of aberration going on in India where BJP is being very aggressive, intolerant and attacking and destroying our institutions."
"They insert their people in very single institution and pressure every single institution...universities, colleges, the CBI, Election Commission every institution."
"RSS thinks that voice of the people is irrelevant. One of the reason why we will win 2019 elections is because there is a massive response coming from bureaucrats and institutions saying we are not going to accept this."
"The government is failing and we have a massive unemployment crisis. Demonetisation by Prime Minister Modi was a rash and irresponsible action. He was directly responsible for the decimation of informal sector."