Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Friday said that the people of Uttar Pradesh believed that free and fair elections may not be possible in the state which is ruled by Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav.

"You have to take a short trip to UP and ask that question to the people there. And the answer that you will get from them will be 'no'," she said while responding to a specific question in this regard after her address at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit.

Sonia parried a question whether she also felt the same as the people of UP. "You being a journalist will probably be more informed than I am," she quipped.

But her comment on what the people of UP felt hinted of her own sentiment as well and was a virtual indictment of the Mulayam regime, coming as it does in the wake of demands that the state be placed under President's Rule following violence in the recent civic polls so that there could be free and fair polls for a new Assembly.

The Congress president said that the party's past experience at the time of elections in UP - including the recent civic polls - had not been a very happy one.

"There was the usual pressure brought upon us by the administration and the government there. But we will fight that," she emphasised.

Sonia did not agree with the question that the Congress would fare badly in the 2007 assembly elections in the state in which her party has been reduced to a marginal political force.

She pointed out that the Congress "has not done that badly" in the recent local body elections. "We have picked up quite a bit. It is a good sign for us," she said. In fact, she claimed that the party could deliver a "few surprises".