Rahul Gandhi To NDTV On Being Iced Out By Akhilesh-Mayawati Alliance

Rahul Gandhi today defended his decision to field candidates in Uttar Pradesh against those of Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav, reinforcing comments that have landed his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in a controversy. "It is pretty clear that in UP, a secular formation is winning, whether it is the Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party or Congress," the Congress president told NDTV in his first television interview in the 2019 national election. Asked about being iced out by the Mayawati-Akhilesh Yadav alliance in India's most politically vital state, Rahul Gandhi said: "You have to ask the SP and BSP. They chose this for strategic reasons."