Hyderabad: Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen president Asaduddin Owaisi said that if the Congress gets 120 seats in the Parliamentary elections, then the game is on.
He was speaking at Learn Project’s first Town Hall meeting with the youth of the constituency at Birla Auditorium on Sunday evening.
He said, “Let the Congress cross 120 seats. If they get 150 then you become the chowkidar. All chowkidars are not chor.”
Andhra Pradesh and Telangana state will be voting on the same day which is a good decision, Mr Owaisi said. “I am going to tour the state of Telangana and we are going to win 17 seats (along with the TRS). If my friend Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy wants me to come to Andhra Pradesh, I will go there too and will campaign for him. The total seats of TS and AP will strengthen regional parties and they are going to play a huge role at the Centre. The majority government has failed and was not good for the people. Regional parties have to be at the Centre to bring benefit to their states.”
But if the Congress gets 120 seats, will the TRS join the Congress, he was asked.
Mr Owaisi said, “If Congress gets 120 seats then TS wins and there will also be win for Jagan Mohan Reddy in Andhra Pradesh. The two Telugu states are going to benefit and what Naidu could not do, Jagan Reddy will do for the state.”
“But what will happen if the Congress does not win and the power brokering has to be done with the BJP by the TRS,” asked.
Mr Owaisi said, “The Acche Din are over. The youth of this country is not going to go behind the narrative of nationalism. I say this in my personal capacity, because in the Assembly elections KCR was particularly clear that the BJP must lose everywhere in Telangana state. In the personal meetings that I had with him he said, ‘Asadbhai, come what may, the BJP must not win and I want your assurance and help’. Results will vouch for this as it is not the Congress that has defeated the BJP in TS. Of the 119 segments deposits have been lost in 111 seats including that of the state president.”
Replying to a question on the strategy now in place for the parliamentary elections, Mr Owaisi said, “Election is like a battle with no fixed strategy. The plans change each and every day.
“In the last Assembly elections, my party cadre wanted to attack the other parties but I told them to wait. When Chandrababu Naidu, Rahul Gandhi and Narendra Modi came to the state and attacked us, then I told them now let us go all out and attack them. Our strategy was to draw out the person. In the parliamentary elections, too, the individual from Siasat wants to contest the election against me in Hyderabad. Let him come out and that is our strategy.”
The 48 per cent polling is dismal, stated Mr Owaisi as he asked the youth to come out and vote. The reason he was sitting here and talking to them was because he wanted to reach out to the people, he said.
Mr Owaisi said, “I have been used to rallies where people say wah wah, kya speech diya. But this interactive audience is different and they are coming with questions, which is making me learn a lot from them.”
The 2014 data has shown that the largest participation was from the youth of the country and in his constituency, too, he wants the young people to come out and exercise their right to vote.
