Rahul Gandhi has said he is open to cooperating with Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati to defeat the BJP but stressed that it is also his responsibility to create space for the Congress, suggesting he is working to a short-term plan and a long-term plan.

“My main point is that we are not going to play anywhere on the back foot. We will not be there on the back foot in Gujarat or Uttar Pradesh or anywhere else,” the Congress president told reporters in his parliamentary constituency, Amethi, on Wednesday.

Asked why the Congress had failed to form an alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Samajwadi Party, Rahul stressed his respect for these two parties’ leaders.

“I respect Mayawatiji and Akhileshji. Our ideologies have many similarities. Our fight is against the BJP. We are ready to extend our cooperation to Mayawatiji and Akhileshji. We can work together wherever we need to do so to remove the BJP,” he said.

Mayawati and Akhilesh had announced their alliance on January 12, declaring they didn’t want the Congress to be part of it and disappointing those who were hoping that all three would jointly battle the BJP for the state’s 80 seats.

After making it clear that the doors for cooperation in the 2019 battle still remained open, Rahul said: “But it is our job to create space for the ideology of the Congress. We have taken a big step (appointing Priyanka Gandhi and Jyotiraditya Scindia as minders for Uttar Pradesh) to create this space.”

“We do politics for the people and for development. For this, we will play on the front foot wherever we get an opportunity. I believe our new steps will bring new ideas to Uttar Pradesh. It will bring positive change to the politics of Uttar Pradesh,” he said.

“Lastly, I’m very happy that my sister, who is very capable and hardworking, will work with me. I’m personally very happy. Jyotiraditya is also a very dynamic youth leader,” Rahul added.

Told about some BJP leaders’ jibe that Priyanka and Jyotiraditya had been “sent” to Uttar Pradesh “on a sabbatical”, the Congress president responded that his sister’s entry into politics had made the ruling party “nervous”.

“I have not sent Priyanka and Jyotiraditya to Uttar Pradesh for two months. I have handed a mission to Priyanka and Jyotiraditya to take forward all sections of society in Uttar Pradesh with the help of the true ideology of the Congress, the ideology of the poor, the ideology of the underprivileged,” he said, outlining his long-term plans.

“I’m quite confident that Priyanka and Jyotiraditya will work to give whatever is the need of Uttar Pradesh, the need of the youths of Uttar Pradesh.”