Will fight UP with full strength: Cong

■ RAHUL SAID the SP and the BSP “have a right to do what they want to do”.

Dubai, Jan. 12: Hours after the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (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 capacity”.

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

“BSP and SP have made a political decision. It’s on us on how to strengthen the Congress party in Uttar Pradesh and we will fight with our full capacity,” he said. “Congress party has tremendous to offer to the people of Uttar Pradesh. On BSP and SP I have tremendous respect to the leaders of BSP and SP, they have a right to do what they want to do,” he said. Once arch-rivals Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party announced Saturday their tie-up in Uttar Pradesh for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, sharing 38 seats each and keeping the Congress out of the alliance.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister and Congress leader Kamal Nath said there was a need for alliances in the entire country to defeat the BJP. He also said the saffron party got only 31 per cent votes in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and claimed that it had the people's mandate, adding that even this happened because votes were split.

Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram said his party was ready to fight the Lok Sabha elections alone but hoped there would be a rethink on the SP-BSP alliance for Uttar Pradesh.