New Delhi : The Congress has decided to support the Samajwadi Party and Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance candidates in all the nine Assembly segments of Uttar Pradesh going for by-elections on November 13.

Announcing this,  the Congress general secretary in charge of UP Avinash Pande and the UP Congress president Ajay Rai said that it was a well thought decision of the party to ensure the defeat of the BJP/NDA candidates in UP.

They said, the way BJP was practicing polarising politics in the country and threatening the Constitution and the secular fabric, it was important that the BJP got defeated.

Pande disclosed that the Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi, after deliberating on the matter, were all in agreement that the party should not field any candidate from any of the nine constituencies and support the SP/INDIA candidates everywhere.

The UP in-charge Avinash Pande said that each and every Congress worker will be actively involved in the campaigning and ensuring that the BJP was defeated in all the nine Assembly segments by the SP/INDIA candidates.

Both Pande and Rai made it categorically clear that the Congress support for the SP/INDIA candidates was in the interest of the nation, and for saving and protecting the Constitution and the secular fabric of the country.