Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi today rejected that his party faced an uphill task in the Lok Sabha polls'. In an interview to PTI, Rahul Gandhi acknowledged that there is a certain amount of anti-incumbency factor but disagreed with senior party leader and Finance Minister P Chidambaram's view that the party was an underdog and faced an uphill task.

Describing opinion pollsas a joke, Rahul said such predictions before 2004 and 2009 elections that the Congress was going to lose and get thrashed proved wrong.

He rubbished the perception that Congress was losing allies and said that it had alliances with NCP, RJD, JMM, RLD and the National Conference. He however conceded that the party had lost the DMK and the Trinamool Congress. He said the party is determined to fight sectarian and communal forces that seek to divide India for narrow political gains.

Replying to a question about people's disappointment with the UPA government's performance, Rahul said that in the last 10 years the UPA government had delivered the highest-ever growth rate and had pulled 150 million people out of poverty. He said it had brought a new kind of transformational politics through RTI, right to education, right to food and employment.

Hitting out at Narendra Modi, Rahul Gandhi demanded legal accountability for, what he called, inexcusable failure of governance during the 2002 Gujarat riots. Answering a question on BJP's contention that Modi had been given a clean chit by the Supreme Court-appointed SIT and the courts, Rahul said the specific allegation and evidence pointing to Modi's responsibility in the 2002 riots are yet to be adequately probed. He said there is a lot more the country needs to know on the issue.

The Congress Vice President said that he does not see the Aam Admi Party as a factor at the national level in the coming Lok Sabha elections. Accusing AAP of running away from governance in Delhi, Rahul said that the new party had got an opportunity to run Delhi for which the Congress had given full support.

On the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in Delhi, Rahul Gandhi said that he completely shared the sentiments of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who had apologised and the party President Sonia Gandhi, who had expressed regrets.