Exuding confidence that the Congress would do better in the Lok Sabha polls in UP by going alone, UP chief Raj Babbar on Tuesday attacked the Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party claiming that the duo 'underestimated’ the grand old outfit of the country while announcing the 'mahaghatbandhan’.

"Yes, we have been out of power for quite sometime in UP. But the SP and BSP have underestimated us by not even contacting us for talks on alliance and announcing the coalition,” asserted Babbar. "We will now come out with more vigour and unity and show the regional parties that their decision was 'wrong’. We have recently showed in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan that we could perform well by going alone. We will come up with similar results in Lok Sabha polls in UP,” cited Babbar.

"In 2009 general elections, Congress won almost the same number of seats as won by the SP and BSP respectively even when we did not have a government for almost three decades in UP. We firmly believe that the mandate and support of the people will decide who is more powerful and who is weak,” Babbar further said.

"The Congress just wants unity amongst the Opposition parties just as they all wanted to defeat the BJP. But the SP and BSP took it as our 'weakness’," he said. About talks with smaller parties for an alliance in UP, Babbar said that all parties wanting to defeat the BJP were welcome but the party was readying to contest all 80 Parliament seats. The Congress leader did not rule out a truck with the newly-formed Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (PSP) of Shivpal Yadav.

Babbar was in Lucknow on Tuesday to review preparation of Rahul Gandhi’s rally in Lucknow to kickstart the 2019 poll campaign on February 10. The Congress leader claimed that the turnout in Rahul’s rally would be a pointer to the Congress support from the public which was desperate to throw out the Modi government.