Lucknow, Oct 19 (IANS): With bypolls to nine of the 10 vacant Assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh to be held on November 13, Congress' state President Ajay Rai on Saturday said that the Congress-Samajwadi Party (SP) alliance will fight together to defeat the ruling BJP in the state.

"Congress-Samajwadi Party alliance is ready and will fight together to defeat the BJP in the state. The atrocities that this government has been doing on the common people for a long time such as demolition of people’s houses, fake encounters, etc. The BJP government does such things to hide its shortcomings," Ajay Rai told IANS.

The Election Commission on October 15 announced that bypolls for nine Assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh, except Milkipur of Ayodhya district, will be held on November 13. The counting of votes will take place on November 23. The bypoll to the Milkipur Assembly seat was not announced as an election petition is pending in the high court against the candidate who had won the seat earlier.

The UP Congress chief further hit out at the BJP over its leader Dinesh Pratap Singh's remark on party General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra where he said that the girl could not fight and ran away to where she would not have to fight..

"BJP government is anti-women and only knows to insult them. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra always talked about respecting women and took steps for women's empowerment," he added.

Rai also hit out at the UP government for stopping Leader of the Opposition in UP Assembly Mata Prasad Pandey from going to violence-hit Bahraich, saying: "This government wants to hide its shortcomings and failures totally. Due to this, they are not letting people go there."

As the UP government issued a demolition notice for the Bahraich violence accused, he asserted that it was completely a violation of the Supreme Court’s order.

“I completely understand that the UP government wants to work to hide its shortcomings. But I would like to request the Supreme Court to take immediate action against them.